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== Safety ==
Turkey has been getting a bad reputation for girls hitchhiking female hitchhikers following the murder of [[Pippa]] in April 2008 and the presence of many disheartening discouraging stories, ranging from minor harassment (see Personal Experiences below) to near-miss murder/rape cases like the one [[User:Zenit|Zenit]] and the girl he was travelling with experienced in November 2011. While these things shouldn't deter anybody from travelling in Turkey, they certainly prove that there is a specific code of conduct different from any other country that needs to be respected in order to avoid unnecessary problems. It will take a little bit of travelling in the country first to get used to this different dynamic, so this will be the time to be extra cautious. Further good reading for girls female hitchhikers – and anybody else travelling in Turkey – is [http://youarealltourists.blogspot.com/2008/04/hitchhiking-guide-to-turkey-for-girls.html this blog]. Safety is always important while hitchhiking, so check the [[Hitchhiker's safety|Safety]] article before going out to wave your thumbhitting the road!
What follows is a list of general guidelines for hitchhiking in Turkey. Remember, however, that you cannot fully master the different dynamics of social interaction, especially between members of opposite sexes, until you've been exposed to the inital special attention you'll receive as a foreigner and possibly made some beginning's mistakes.
* First of all, keep in mind that in Turkey there is widespread prejudice concerning the willingness of Western girls to engage in casual sex with random strangers.
* Having said that, the biggest part of problems arise from the different conceptions of flirting in the West and in Turkey. In Turkey, making eye conctact, smiling and accepting compliments can all easily be interpreted as outright flirtateous behaviour. Another thing to watch out for is that Turkish men will test guys males travelling with girls a female to see how protective they are of the girls they're travelling withtheir female companion. This will always be in a somewhat playful manner, and hardly ever in a threatening way. One very important thing is that a guy man travelling with a girl woman should never let her sit next to a man other than himself. This cannot be stressed enough, as drivers will read from this behaviour that a) the guy has no claims in on the girl and don't really care what happens to her from this point and b) that the girl might be interested/easy.
* Another important point, if one that goes somewhat without saying, is about clothing. Turkey is definitely not the place to hitchhike in hotpants and a tanktop, the least should be long trousers and a unrevealing t-shirt with sleeves down to your elbows. Anyone wearing less than this (apart from the Western coastal regions maybe) will usually be seen as a prostitute, and without the necessary language skills to explain women's rights over their own body you might get yourself into hassle you don't really need. If you want to be extra safe, you can also hitchhike with a headscarf and/or a long ("Iranian style") gown going down to your thighs and hiding your shape.
* There is different things you can say about your marital status. If travelling with a guy, the classical story of the married couple can work well enough, but won't necessarily stop a determined guy from trying his chances. Also keep in mind that many truck drivers (but generally not drivers of private cars) know that foreign hitchhikers tend to lie about their status as married couples. This might actually encourage some truck drivers to try his luck even if in the first point they never intended anything at all. If travelling alone as a girl, it seems to be safer to say that you are unmarried - meaning, for most people, a virgin. The purity of virginity is widely respected and can provide protection. You can usefully combine both of these strategies (if travelling in a couple) by saying that you're cousins because a) you will be seen as a unmarried virgin, b) male relatives traditionally protect unmarried female family members and c) a cousin might at some point also have been picked by the family to be a future husband to the girl.
