What's in a name?

Duygu Asena, Turkey's pioneering feminist writer known for her best-seller "The Woman Has No Name," would have cringed had she seen a recent wedding invitation from the eastern province of Van. The formal invitation, with bold golden letters against a black backdrop, contained no female names - not that of the bride, nor the parents. It was simply two men, the marriage of their son on a certain date in the Başkale district of Van. Ironically, the name of the best man was on the card. Alas, the bride had no name.

The invitation, which was shared on social media, unsurprisingly gave way to a lot of lewd comments: "So perhaps the groom is marrying the best man," wrote one practical joker. Others, such as Al-Monitor columnist Pınar Tremblay, saw the invitation as a further step in the efforts in the last 12 years of the eradication of the presence of women from public spaces. Drawing attention to the fact that many pious Turks saw the wedding as an occasion to demonstrate their adherence to strict Islam, Tremblay painted a vivid picture of conservative weddings - where there would be not one but two lavish ceremonies, one for men and one for women; where the bride's attire would be conservative and there would be no coed pictures. The families who have created the no-bride invite - one family is the head of a major southeastern tribe and the other is the former provincial chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) - are likely to have a conservative wedding.

But the issue of the name goes beyond the conservative weddings or debates on whether the bride is veiled or not. As Asena saw in the 1980's, the name of the woman is at the heart of the debate on her rights and her identity.

The brideless invitation in Turkey comes after a...