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Subscribe to RSSThe family of a 33-year-old Staten Island woman says she has disappeared while traveling alone in Turkey.
Sarai Sierra, a mother of two who enjoys photography, was looking forward to her trip and arrived in Istanbul on Jan. 7. She was supposed to return to New York on Jan. 21.
Her husband, Steven, says she was not on her flight home and has not been heard from since.
Sierra's passport and medical cards were still in her room in Turkey. Her worried family is launching a search with authorities to find her.
U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm said Saturday his office is working with officials in the U.S. and Istanbul to locate Sierra and bring her home safely.
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Why is Turkey's AKP ruling party opposing efforts to protect women? Because the Qur'an directs men to beat disobedient women (4:34); how, then, is all this domestic violence any concern of a good, pious Muslim? "Domestic violence rings alarm bells in Turkey," by Şafak Tımur for Agence France-Presse, April 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Memo to AFP: "conservatives" do not generally commit honor killings or murder women who are seeking divorce.
With all respect, it is stupid to travel to hostile screwed up countries, very naive and clueless..
She probably tried to take their guns...
this sounds fishy. has anyone talked to her boyfriend yet?
Her husband is doing that chore. He was busy with his GF and will get to it the day after tomorrow.
I don't think we have a lot of information about this woman or her family. She maybe a muslim herself. But I think if you are planning to travel you really need to heed STate Dept warnings about the countries you are traveling in and around. Man or woman there are many advisorys about traveling alone in a foreign country. I don't think I would do this myself. I don't think any pictures you take would be worth the risk. Maybe money prevented both husband and wife from going but no matter this woman took a 'high' risk. I do hope they find her safe but if her passport is in the room I would say chances are not good for this. ONe thing I know is you need to keep your id with you at all times when traveling abroad on a vacation. I cannot imagine this woman went far on her own accord and left her valuables behind.
Don't forget: in Turkey there's a white slavery. Ask so many russian and ukrainian girls taken as prostitutes on those places. I hope this is not the case. I will pray for her safe return...
If she isn't a U.S. spy then she is just another ignorant NY liberal who views the world through rose colored glasses.
There is a word for those you describe - victim.
All I can say is she must of had a death wish. Travels to the ends of the earth alone? Hope all is well lady?
Joel, Wisconsin. The ends of the earth? The earth is round Buddy, and Turkey's western border lies in Europe on the Meditteranean. Not exactly no man's land.
Why the hell would ANY woman travel alone, especially when leaving the USA! OMG Turkey?? That country has absolutely NO respect for women at all, it's as bad as India! I sincerely hope she comes home safe and sound.
Im sure she is fine. Most likely drugged up and pulling tricks at a brothel somewhere in eastern europe or asia. She'll be alright as long as she likes screwing a whole lot.
Oh yeah. Just a friendly reminder, don't travel alone. Especially women. Your equal rights here in the USA don't mean chit in other countries.
chit? oh!, you mean SQUAT!
Does anyone know that she actually went to Turkey? Do they know for sure she arrived or are they taking the husband's word for it? Seems like a good alibi for a husband who wants to kill his wife and get away with it.
Maybe a little too much Nancy Grace in your bad television habit Karen?? hmmmm?
Umm - did you read the part where her ID/papers were in her hotel room and her husband hasn't entered the country yet?
Drama much?
Easily checked by the CSI.
All this talk of Turkey makes me want some, along with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and of course, French green beans.
Good American Turkey, Yeah.! But that Turkey is part Grease and and mixed with Curds in the whey which makes it hard to digest especially for an Armenian.
i'm always amazed at the number of americans who think they can just "flit" willy-nilly all over the world with impunity!
I don't feel bad for people doing stupid things.
I traveled alone in Turkey in 2011 as 23 year-old, and I am a woman. During my 3-week stay I wasn't any more harassed by men than I am here in the U.S. Istanbul, which apparently was this woman's main hub, is a very liberal city - I felt quite comfortable wearing tight clothing there among all the other young female travelers and young locals. The eastern side of the country is a different story however, and anyone who does a little research before visiting as they should, would know to act and dress more conservatively in that area. You know what they say, "when in Rome..." I truly hope they find Mrs. Sierra safe and sound.
You can walk the streets in certain parts of Chicago alone at night and come out alive. But telling everybody it's safe for them would be a crock of Bull. Your appearance, your demeaner, and the fact that you were "among all the other young female travelers and young locals", not always alone, may have protected you. Furthermore, there is no wall between the Western and Eastern part of Turkey. The Moslem radicals in the east have open access to the streets of Istanbul and can freely move about in the city no matter how liberal it may be. Liberal Boston, New York and LA didn't keep the terrorists out before 9-11. I personally know Iraqi business women who wore western dress but knew exactly which downtown street marked the boundary between modern civilization and medieval Islamic despotism.
While I feel for this woman and her family here in the States...I continually ask my self when people are finally 'going to get it!'. The woman has a husband and young children - STAY HOME where you belong. The article doesn't specify if she was working - but leads us to believe she was on a leisure trip to take photos - either way you're taking your OWN life into your OWN hands if you choose to travel to countries who have no respect for U.S. citizens and/or women. With SO much internal unrest in Turkey there is no legitimate reason for traveling there and if people do they alone should be responsible for their safety. They make stupid decisions and believe they have no personal accountability. However, the minute something happens they're screaming for the State Department to 'do something'. The thing to do would have been 'DON'T GO!.' We can ill-afford to spend millions of dollars tracking down 1 person who made a personal choice to court danger and possibly disaster - depending on the outcome. This seems to happen on a regular basis - people need to read the writing on the wall.
She should have gone to Disney World. EPCOT has some countries she could visit.
That was good, Jeanette!
Do you know that the veil is outlawed in Turkey?
Xavaria; Stay home where she belongs? Don't get out much, do you? There is not enough information in this article to make the assumptions many of you do. Maybe this woman was an avid photographer, her children were older and her husband could not get off from work to go. The only thing the article said was that she arrived on the 7th and was to return on the 21rst. The husband said she was not on her return flight and has not heard from her since. Who knows when he heard from her last? What is she left her hotel for a stroll and was in a car accident, and without ID, no one knows who she is? Do not assume it was some nasty Turkish men who kidnapped her.
This is an article from www.turkishtravelplanner.com
Most Turks are Muslims, but Turkish society is modern and predominantly secular, so European dress styles prevail. For your holiday in Turkey, dress the same as you would to visit France, Germany, Italy or the UK.
Many observant Turkish Muslim women (perhaps 50% of the female population) dress in tesettür, a headscarf and light cover-all topcoat, when going out in public. This satisfies the Islamic admonition to modest dress without infringing Turkish law which prohibits religious dress in public places.
You may see women in burka (full-body covering, with veil), but they will most likely be visitors from other countries with a stricter interpretation of Islamic dress traditions. Actually, the veil is outlawed in Turkey (but the law is little enforced), and even the wearing ofheadscarves in secular contexts (universities, government offices, etc.) is controversial.
Quick dress rules:
1. Stylish casual dress for most places. Dress up more ("smart casual") for the cities, less for the seaside resorts. The nearly universal summer tourist dress ofshorts-and-T-shirt is fine, but not in mosques. However, in Turkish cities—as in New York, Sydney or London—most of the local people around you will be more stylishly dressed.
2. To visit mosques, clean and modest dress is appreciated and often required. In short, don't show thighs, shoulders or tops of upper arms. Slacks, or knee-length skirt or dress; blouse or top with sleeves to at least the mid-upper-arm. Have a headscarf to cover your hair. In cooler seasons, a light hoodie is a great idea: just raise the hood when entering a mosque, and you needn't bother with a headscarf!
No shorts, sleeveless tops (tank tops) or revealing clothing on women or men, please. Shoes don't matter as you will be removing them before entering the mosque in any case (so slip-ons make it easier). At the most-visited mosques (such as Istanbul's Blue Mosque), attendants may provide cover-all robes (free) if your manner of dress is questionable.
3. In seaside resort towns, dress as you like.Outright nudity is illegal, but some tourists sunbathetopless on Turkish beaches and are rarely questioned (though sometimes photographed by other tourists and the Turkish press!)
4. In the better restaurants, dress is somewhat more formal than in the USA or Australia. Avoid wearing shorts-and-T-shirt to a good restaurant or dining room for any meal. In the evening, stylish dress, slacks or skirt-and-top are preferred. For men, ties are not normally required, and jackets are usually optional. Many Turks wear jacket-and-tie to dinner, but may remove their jackets at some point during dinner.
5. In rural areas away from the tourist throngs, Turks will accept you as you are, but women in more modest dress (sleeved tops, slacks or knee-length dresses or skirts) may be seen as worthier of respect. A foreign woman wanting to fit in with traditional village lifewould wear slacks (or, going native, the comfortable Turkish bloomers called şalvar [SHAHL-vahr]), a top with sleeves at least to the elbows and perhaps even to the wrists, and a headscarf, when out in public.
This sounds like a liberated woman's dream. This is the new Jerusalem, the Moslem paradise for feminists. Thanks for the detailed description. We'll be sure to send our Amish girls for Int'l studies. They'll fit right in. Maybe? But where do we get those stylish bloomers? Walmart doesn't know know a thing about them and the clerk at Macy's gave us a dirty look when we asked.
Come on, Johnny; the only thing you can focus on is the use of the word bloomers? They are trying to describe a traditional shorter wider pant that is worn. I was giving you what the recommended dress is so as not to perpetuate the idea that all run around in burkas.
Actually, when I was much younger and visited churches in Italy, especially in Venice, Florence and Rome, women had to wear mandatory head coverings like mantillas and wear sleeves that covered your upper arms, no one wore shorts.
You should have tried looking in Neiman-Markus, Bergdorf Goodman or Saks 5th Avenue where the well-traveled sophisticated woman shops. They don't accept piggy banks.
What a stupid thing to do, travel alone in foreign country. This is a country that does not recognize women's rights, and women are strictly an object for sexual purposes and to cook, and clean. I would not be surprised if she was forced into white slavery or into prostitution. If she was hot with blond hair her asking price would go up.
Soon a ransom letter might come asking the family to bail her out.
You mean her seller's asking price would go up.
Ron-2402090
You are so ignorant as to woman, and their rights in Turkey.
Turkey is a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Womensince 1985, as well as to its Optional Protocol since 2002.[7]
Article 10 of the Turkish Constitution bans any discrimination, state or private, on the grounds of sex. It is the first country which had a woman as the President of its Constitutional Court, Tülay Tuğcu. In addition, Turkish Council of State, the supreme court for administrative cases, also has a woman judgeSumru Çörtoğlu as its President.
The article 41 of the Turkish Constitution was revised to read that the family is "based on equality between spouses".[8] The new code also granted women equal rights to property acquired during marriage, which was supposedly meant to give economic value to women’s labor within the family household.[8]
The minimum age for marriage was also raised to 18 (17 with parental consent).[8] In cases of forced marriage, women have right to ask an annulment within the first 5 years of marriage.[8] In 2004, an update to article 10 of the constitution placed the responsibility for establishing gender equality on the state: "men and women have equal rights. The state shall have the obligation to ensure that this equality exists in practice".[8]
In 2005, the Turkish penal code was changed to criminalize marital rape and harshen the sentences for those convicted of honor killings, which previously carried reduced sentenced because of "provocation".[9]
The Islamic headscarf, worn by more than 20% of Turkish women,[10] is banned to women working in public offices, including school teachers and university academic personnel, during the practice of their functions. Girl students in primary and secondary education also are not allowed to use headscarf, except in optional religion classes.
The right to abortion in the first 10 weeks of gestation is given to women, and they are entitled to free contraception. They also can initiate divorce and obtain a divorce.
Life of course is different for those who live in eastern Turkey and more little villages. Although legally they are covered by the same rights, old customs and ways of life usually dictate what is found to be acceptable.
Jersyshore...don't try to speak the truth to idiots...it's like trying to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and it annoys the pig.
We know all about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the secularization of Turkey after WWI. The government promoted liberal Western secular humanism as the replacement for Moslem culture. Religion as it was in the West was marginalized as anachronistic and outdated. The military kept the lid on the Fundamentalists Moslems and kept them under control for decades. But those days are coming to a close and the Fundamentalist Moslem heart of Turkey is beating stronger by the year, the sleeping giant is awakening and the genie is about ready to come out of the bottle. The Koran and Hadith trumps any laws, rules, codes, treaties, and Conventions on the books. Moslem Afghanistan has similar proscriptions in it's Constitution but they go about as far as you can toss a spitting camel.
Sounds like something out of the movie, Taken. Hopefully she'll be found safe and unharmed.
It's too bad Liam Neeson isn't her father
A woman traveling ALONE in Turkey?? Not the wisest move she ever made, and WHY ON EARTH did her husband agree to this trip?? Bad decisions all the way around. I'm afraid that one of the comments about sex slavery may just be right, unfortunately, or she's dead. I'm sorry to say.
Leaves her husband and kids alone to travel in Turkey of all places. Oh yeah that is really smart for a women to be traveling alone in a foreign country. Women really are more stupid than men.
I am sorry but what husband in his right mind would allow his wife to travel alone anywhere?
I hate to say this but the "bring her home safely" window is probably closed.
One of the early comments mentioned the Schengen Area. For your information below.
The Schengen Area comprises the territories of twenty-six European countries that have implemented the Schengen Agreement, signed in the town of Schengen, Luxembourg in 1985. The Schengen Area operates as a single international travel and immigration area with no border controls for people travelling between Schengen countries and only external border controls for those travelling in and out of the area.
I find it interesting that the majority of posters on this article have such little sympathy for this woman, and actually fully blame her for this outcome. Does that mean when anything bad happens to someone it is their fault for not foreseeing the future? For instance, if a college girl gets roofied at a frat party...did she deserve it for going there in the first place?
This type of stuff happens ALL THE TIME in the United States, not just Arabic countries. Have any of you ever visited Turkey? I'm a white American female and have traveled solo around Turkey numerous times over the past few years. It's an absolutely beautiful country and never once have I had a single issue where I felt my safety was at risk. However, when visiting U.S. cities such as Chicago, NYC, and Detroit; I have been harassed 10x more by men than any other country I've visited. It's easy to think ill of another country and it's people solely based on what American mainstream media feeds you, but you shouldn't be so quick to judge. If that were the case, do you think people from any other countries would want to visit the U.S. after hearing about all of the violence, raping, and school shootings that go on here? Should we all just stay inside our homes out of fear of something bad happening to us?
It's also a bit hypocritical that people are blaming her husband for "letting her go", yet they accuse Muslim men of being so controlling over their women. The Christian Bible also spouts nonsense about women being inferior to men just as the Qur'an does.
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." (Ephesians 5:22-24)
I truly hope this woman is found soon and safely returns to her family.
You are right, the Husband shares the blame for letting her go. He is as Stupid as she is. Stupid is as stupid does, to quote Forrest Gump.
Why are you traveling so often to Turkey?
The first time I went was for a volunteer trip to help women start their own businesses in some of the small villages. After that it was to go back and visit with those women and I wanted to see the rest of the country. It has a lot of interesting history being in between Europe and Asia, including a ton of beautiful Roman ruins scattered all around the country.
You're getting better at it Jessica. Quoting the Bible, even if out of context, makes you sound less Moslem but you still can't hide you Islamic core beliefs and sympathies. It sounds like you are only a tourist in America and a native of Turkey. You seem to love Turkey more than this country. Of couse it's beautiful to you if you were born and raised there and later moved here. Maybe your Father is an American serviceman who married a Turkish girl and your sympathies are with your motherland. Maybe you have a Turkish boyfriend. That would explain wandering around the country solo. But you're not really solo. You probably speak the language and your mother's family keeps watch over you. And also lets the locals know to keep hands off. I lived in an inner city Ghetto for part of a year where even the police wouldn't go without getting shot. I knew the leader of the Black gangs and he put out word to everyone to let me be. Did that make it safe for every Honky outsider. Not on your life. Turkey is your first love. Good for you. Don't pretend it's America!
Johnny;
You are truly a real jerk, and an ignorant one at that. Turkey is a secular country (look it up), although the majority of Muslim. They do not follow Sharia law, and women have equal rights under the law, allowed to have abortions, drink, smoke, divorce, etc..Maybe you are not open to the beauty of the stretching seaside coastline, the mountains and the rich history found in the archeological sites (they have more ancient Greek ruins than Greece does today). They have tourists from many western European countries and the Soviet Union, as well as from the US.
As for your statement, "Don't pretend it's America"; Why would anyone want to travel to a foreign country if it is just like home? Life as you speak of it inside an inner city ghetto is not the same as it is for those raised in a middle-class eastern coast shore city. Too bad you are so blind you cannot see life outside your self-built box.