Turkish American Women Association

“Celebrating Great Global Citizens Month” at UNT

Admin — Mon, 20 May 2013 06:50:49 +0000

Every year UNT organizes “Celebrating Great Global Citizens Month” with many events that bring many different cultures together. Some of their events include International Film Showing, International Art Show and International Food Fair. TAWA was invited to International Food Fair. At the International Food Fair, students from Japan, Pakistan and many other countries were able to share their traditional food. Turkish students from UNT and members of TAWA had great experience sharing the Turkish food and explaining about Turkish culture. Many of the students came back saying “they enjoyed Turkish food a lot and it was their favorite food at the fair.” We look forward to attending to the next year’s International Food Fair.

Turkish Cooking Class #6

Admin — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:37:52 +0000

The last class for this session took place last Saturday, April the 6th, at 1 pm in Turquoise Center. Our menu for this week was Manti (Turkish Dumpling), Turkmen Turnip Salad, and Hanim Gobegi as a desert with syrup. We had one additional surprise recipe which we did not announce beforehand, Apple Cookies. To make this last class special, we decorated a separate room, and prepared additional dishes like Flour Cookies, Tahini Pudding, Salty Pastries and Olive Creamed Pastries for our guests. They enjoyed delicious party and had fun with warm conversations.

Seminar with Dr. Martha Ann Kirk at UT Dallas

Admin — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:53:36 +0000

We had a joint seminar program with The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID) and Intercultural Women’s Society of UT Dallas on March 22nd 2013 at UT Dallas campus.
Our distinguished guest speaker was Dr. Martha Ann Kirk, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas.
She is well known for her efforts on interfaith and peace activities and author of “Women of Bible Lands: A Pilgrimage to Compassion and Wisdom” with stories of ancient Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
In her talk entitled “Hopes and Healing: Stories from Iraqi Women of Three Generations”, she presented stories of Iraqi people and how their lives have been changed and transformed by schools that were first opened in 1994 by Turkish educators. She has been visiting Iraq for three years now to conduct research and interview people. So far, she interviewed 140 people, men and women, and made a valuable photograph collection to present pictures from these people’s lives.

Iraq is an unfortunate region that has been suffering from wars for more than three decades now –it first started with Iran-Iraq war in 1980. For most people, most of their lives is filled with dark stories of war. But with the opening of “Fezalar Educational Institutions” in Northern Iraq in 1994, things have been changing, slowly but very promisingly.

These schools first provided quality equation to the children of Iraq whose graduates are at very important positions now where they serve to betterment of their own country. Among them are teachers, managers, engineers, and worth to mention particularly, a female civil engineer who supervises a million dollar, water transport system project.

It is not only the lives of people that has changed but also their worldviews. Since these people mostly saw war and were grown up with hatred, they admit they learned how to overcome their hatred at these schools. They learned tolerance, they learned to live together; Arabs, Turkmens and Kurdish people all together. They learned tolerance and being forgiving. At the same time,they learned to be generous and sacrificing. In fact Turkish teachers earned people’s trust in the region, especially Kurdish people’s because they thought Turks were in their land to takeover, by the great sacrifice they made by not leaving the country at the time there was a great risk for Saddam Hussein to use chemical weapons when he was about to be down in 2003. Thanks to the teachers who didn’t leave at that time, and those that still continue to bring hope and peace to the lives of thousands today.

You can watch the talk given by Dr. Kirk at the Gulen Conference on a similar topic here:

http://vimeo.com/18404586

Resource Fair of Middle East Peace Conference

Admin — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 03:37:22 +0000

TAWA participated at the Resource Fair of Middle East Peace Conference on March 22, 2013 at the Gateway Conference Center of University of North Texas-Denton. We publicized our services to conference participants and the communities in the DFW area.

UT Southwestern Medical Center Bake Sale

Admin — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 03:31:33 +0000

TAWA in collaboration with Turkish Student Association (TSA) of UT Southwestern, organized bake sale at the UT Southwestern Medical Center on March 21, 2013. The proceeds have been donated to Simmons Cancer Center of the university.

Turkish Cooking Class #5

Admin — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:40:41 +0000

TAWA organized the 5th session of Turkish Cooking Classes last Saturday on March 23rd. Our menu was Iskender Kebab, Vegetable Soup, Bean Salad and Sobiyet as dessert with syrup. Guests enjoyed the delicious meals served with warm conversations in a friendly environment. Guests who has been to Turkey also mentioned how similar the taste of the Iskender Kebab with the original one they tasted in Turkey.

Turkish Cooking Class #4

Admin — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:19:39 +0000

TAWA organized the 4th session of Turkish Cooking Classes last Saturday on March 9th. Our menu was Forest Kebab, Bosnian Pastry, Salad with yogurt and sour cream and White Mosaic Tea Biscuit Dessert. Our long time friend Selma from Bosnia demonstrated making Bosnian Pastry with spinach and cheese. She shared her years of experience in making this pastry once a week. We all had a feast for both our eyes and our stomachs at the end of the day. Come join us in our next class on March 23rd. Here are some photos for you to enjoy and you can find the recipes in our blog. Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook!

Luncheon on February 23rd

Admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 05:35:20 +0000

TAWA and IID joint luncheon program was held on February 23rd, 2013. Our distinguished guest speaker Mabrie Jackson, President and CEO of North Texas Commission gave an overview of North Texas, an economically vibrant region: if it was a country, it would be the 27th largest economy in the world. She elaborated on what makes the region unique, such as its diverse economy, regional assets and low cost of doing business and low cost of living. She emphasized the significance of DFW airport to the region’s economy and business owners’ increased ability to do business both domestically and now internationally with many direct flights from DFW to important international destinations.

Turkish Cooking Class #3

Admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:50:56 +0000

TAWA organized the third session of Turkish Cooking Classes last Saturday on Feb 23rd. Our menu was Chickpeas with Beef, Bulghur Pilaf with dried tomatoes, yogurt with cucumbers and Flat Kadaif. Here are some photos from the class. We hope to see you next time! Click here to visit our famous blog which has visitors all around the world! (from 82 countries in 2012)

Dinner with Christ Lutheran Church Members

Admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:35:06 +0000

We came together with the members of Christ Lutheran Church – Dallas for dinner on Feb 11th at the Turquoise Center. The event started with a tour of the center and continued by presentations about TAWA and Turkey, an attractive tourism destination. While enjoying the delicious food sponsored by generous donations of CLC-Dallas members, questions came one after another in an attempt to get to know ‘the other’ little bit more. The more we talked the more we realized our commonalities are far more beyond our differences; and the other is not much different from ourselves. We are hoping this gathering to be only the beginning of a long lasting friendship and collaboration.