Every Turkish girl's dream: Making börek

Baking börek is not rocket science. Any idiot can do it. It is a trap for girls. Have you ever seen a man say he will learn how to make börek so his marriage can last? Börek is a Turkish pastry. We even have a song for it: ?Börekler açar?m sana,? (I will make böreks for you) by Nazan Öncel. I was going to give the link to the song but I listened to it and decided not to. It is not Öncel?s best work (?Nereye Böyle? is perfect, for instance).  

It was two weeks ago that I was going to write about the bond between Turkish women and ?the börek? but other incidents occurred in the meantime such as the heartbreaking photo of baby Aylan washed ashore and our Hürriyet headquarters being attacked by a mob smashing our windows. Now, in the office, we live together with dozens of good-looking, young, tall policemen.  

So the topic of börek came up two weeks ago when a newly appointed minister of the ?election cabinet? was quoted as saying, ?If a Muslim woman does not know how to make börek, then that family is doomed to break up.? 

Ay?en Gürcan is the Family and Social Policies minister by the way. She herself is divorced and obviously making börek did not help her own marriage. Other comments on social media were that she must have made börek a lot in her married life but then, they are guessing, she ate them all herself. 

Dear young Turkish girls and Muslim girls everywhere in the world: Do not fall into this trap. It is a minimal job, anybody can do it. They want women to take pride in cooking and cleaning so that they do not seek any other goal. 

Börek is made with filo pastry; its filling varies from cheese, spinach, minced meat to other local herbs. You soak them in or splatter on a mixture of eggs, milk or...