DHAKA: In spite of having similarities with the religion, there are huge numbers of differences between Turkish and Bengali cultivating cultures and practices, said the speaker at a seminar held at the Institute of Modern Language of Dhaka University (DU) on Tuesday (Sep 18).

The seminar was entitled as "Turkish Life: Past, Present and Future" while Md Mahady Hasan, popularly known as Saroj Mehedi, Lecturer of Gono University and Turkey Scholarship Fellow was the keynote speaker.

The seminar was chaired by the Institute Director and Famous Philologist Dr. Sishir Bhattacharya while the teachers of Dhaka University Monir Uddin, Sabrina Chowdhury, Mizanur Rahman, Rafikum Munir Chowdhury, Akm Zakaria among others were present.

Through the visual presentation, Mehedi in his hour-long discussion focused on the Turkish lifestyle and social aspects sketching the fact that the Turks, as a victorious nation, have an immense influence on the Muslims all over the world, notably on the Bangladeshi Muslim as well. Although Bangladesh is a Muslim Country, Turkish-Bengali culture is quite different that is beyond most of the people's knowledge.

The speaker also opined that the Turks have their own lifestyle which is influenced by modern Europe in a great extent. A good number of women are working alongside the men here in Turkey. Moreover, the presence of Turkish women in the universities, markets and other public places is sometimes large in number than the boys comparatively. Hence, their lifestyle is very different from the entire Muslim world. The different ways of Turkish greetings, foodstuff, dress-code, the ongoing lingua-cultural conflict, ethnic diversity and so on were also discussed.

Professor Dr. Shishir Bhattacharya as the president of the program emphasized to promote the intercultural communication with an aim of spreading the Bengali Culture among countries and ethnic groups over the world.

BDST: 1850 HRS, SEP 18, 2018

AP/SMS