Posted by Elif Shafak on November 15th, 2022

To Jacinda Ardern, PM of New Zealand From Elif Shafak (Turkey/UK)

“By caring and connecting, you have single-handedly destroyed that toxic narrative propagated by fanatics and fundamentalists.”

Dear Jacinda Ardern,

I come from a country – Turkey – where patriarchy remains deeply entrenched. Despite the centuries- old cultural and institutional gender disparity, and despite the fact that the country has been going backwards at a bewildering speed, sliding into a crude form of authoritarianism, the women of my motherland are strong, resilient, courageous. There are remarkable women of all ethnic and social backgrounds in almost every field – from media to academia, from medicine to finance. But there is one area where women are almost non-existent, invisible, unheard – and that is, politics. It makes a tremendous difference, and not in a good way, when women are denied the chance to move up the political and social ladder. It makes a tremendous difference when most – if not all – the decision- makers are nationalisticreligious-conservative- middle-aged men for whom patriarchy is the norm, the way things have always been and the way things will always be. A while ago it was these same legislators who tried to pass a law that proposed to reduce the sentence given to rapists of minors should they agree to marry their victims. In the eyes of these politicians, if the “family honour was saved” by making rapists marry their victims, this would be a good solution for everyone! It never occurred to them that they were punishing the victims, and not the rapists. It never occurred to them to consider the situation through the eyes of the women and minorities. Such is the mentality we have to fight against not only in Turkey, but in Lebanon, Egypt . . . all across the Middle East and beyond.

How remarkable it is therefore to see you showing us that it is possible for women, even younger women, to become political leaders, and perhaps more importantly, that it is possible for women to become a very different type of politician. At a time when public trust in politics and politicians – and sadly even in liberal democracy itself – has been eroding at an alarming pace, I find your voice incredibly important, inspiring.

Since you ascended to power, you have done things that hadn’t been done before and you did all this in such a natural, organic and modest way that people began to question their own limits and stereotypes. That you gave birth while you were in office was quite extraordinary – although, of course, it shouldn’t be. You have been asked repeatedly whether you found it hard to balance the two roles: politics and motherhood. I wondered if your male colleagues were asked the same question, whether they found it hard to balance their careers as politicians and the tasks of fatherhood, and if they weren’t asked the same question, why not? Then came the horrific terrorist attacks at Christchurch that murdered 49 innocent people. At this point, sadly, with breaking news of terror attacks and political uncertainties almost every month in some part of the world, so many people had become “desensitized” to the news, and a certain numbness was setting in. But the way you responded to the atrocity was so unusual and so deeply and touchingly human that even those who had become desensitized felt re- energized, re- connected. You have transformed their apathy into empathy. You brought emotional intelligence into mainstream politics, proving that sometimes the best way forward is simply to follow your intuition and to be a human.

East and West, extremists divide humanity into “us versus them” and tell young people that “ they don’t care for you. They will never feel your pain.” But by caring and connecting, you have single-handedly destroyed that toxic narrative propagated by fanatics and fundamentalists.

It is striking that you do what you do without trying to look “perfect” and you can talk about your own anxieties, failures and ups- and-downs. This puts you miles apart from several other women politicians who are extremely careful to always give the impression of being tough and in control, and by doing so, suppress their emotions lest they be seen as “weak”. Compassion is not weakness, and this you have proven.

We live in an age in which emotions guide and misguide politics. Unfortunately, it is way too often negative emotions that speak louder and are echoed more widely. Ours is the age of anxiety, fear, anger, resentment – an existential angst looms everywhere. The challenge in front of us is how to channel these negative emotions into positive and constructive narratives. Despite the importance of feelings, it is odd that many political scientists and experts simply ignore them. Aft er all, emotions do not constitute measurable data. Analysts are so obsessed with statistics and graphics that they fail to see there are major undercurrents that are not easily put into numbers. The biggest clashes today are taking place in the world of culture. We need to pay attention to emotions, perceptions, and stories.

Today you are leading crucial discussions on counterterrorism, climate change, social inequality, tech for humanity, urging tech monopolies to take responsible action, encouraging international cooperation. At a time of increasing polarization and artificial divisions, you continue to bridge gaps. You have brought kindness and inclusivity into politics.

I know you have been called a “game changer” before, but I honestly don’t like that definition. I don’t think you see any of this as a “game”. I believe you simply want to do the right thing at the right time – for your country, for the world, and for all those whose voices have for too long been unheard, silenced. In an interview you gave in 2018, you said, “the arts and creativity are integral and inseparable parts of what it is to be human”. This is what we novelists passionately believe in as well. Words matter. Stories matter. The art of storytelling matters. Thank you Jacinda Ardern for being a leader who is not shy to talk about emotions, for being a different kind of politician who listens and connects rather than imposes from above and divides, for being a natural defender of empathy and humanism and women’s rights and minority rights, for being a liberal and progressive with a vision that transcends echo chambers, and ultimately, for being a world citizen and a global soul.

About the Author

Elif Shafak is an award- winning British-Turkish novelist. She writes in both Turkish and English and has published 18 books, 11 of which are novels. Her work has been translated into 54 languages. Her latest novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize; and was Blackwell’s Book of the Year. Her previous novel, The Forty Rules of Love was listed by the BBC as being among the 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. Shafak holds a PhD in political science and she has taught at various universities in Turkey, the US and the UK, including St Anne’s College, Oxford, where she is an honorary fellow. She is a member of WEForum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). An advocate for women’s rights, LGBT rights and freedom of speech, Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and twice TED Global speaker.

Jacinda Ardern is the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Elected prime minister at just 37 years of age, Jacinda is the world’s youngest woman Head of Government, and only the second to become a mother while in office (after Benazir Bhutto). Her leadership style is one of empathy in a crisis that tempts people to fend for themselves.

Extracted from: From Women to the World: Letters for a New Century (Bloomsbury), which published in paperback on the 3rd of November, 2022.