{"id":125135,"date":"2022-02-07T10:33:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T10:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=125135"},"modified":"2022-02-07T10:33:32","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T10:33:32","slug":"turkeys-ritual-corpse-washers-say-faith-overcame-covid-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/turkeys-ritual-corpse-washers-say-faith-overcame-covid-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey's ritual corpse washers say faith overcame COVID fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Eda Elal has prepared corpses for burial in accordance with Islamic rituals nearly half her life, but says her job as a \u201cghassal\u201d in Turkey has never been harder than when bodies and illness overwhelmed her during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>

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Elal, 36, said a sense of spiritual duty helped her continue carrying out the common end-of-life ritual despite exhaustion and fear, especially when she herself fell ill with COVID-19 last year.<\/p>\n

According to the ritual, ghassals pray while washing the body, before placing it in a white shroud ahead of burial. Corpses arrive from hospitals or homes to a washing cabin, called a \u201cghassilhane\u201d, where men wash male bodies and women wash female bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been a ghassal for 16 years. I have never seen so many dead together. I have never washed so many corpses in one day. We were exhausted,\u201d Elal said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelieve me, getting COVID was more difficult than washing someone who died of COVID. Because you are sick yourself, you are waging a battle of life and death,\u201d she said, adding she received therapy for some time because she couldn\u2019t go outside fearing she would be re-infected.<\/p>\n

Istanbul, Turkey\u2019s largest city of some 16 million, has 243 ghassals working in 16 washing cabins that are managed and funded by the municipal government, providing the service for free.<\/p>\n

Elal said two ghassals normally wash five bodies each day, though it was as many as 40 during the worst days of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s daily COVID-19 deaths peaked near 400 in May last year, and now hover just below 200 even as cases are at record highs.<\/p>\n

Ceyhan Tunc, 45, another ghassal, said they were panicked when the pandemic began and debated how to continue their work while keeping safe, but continued once new protective measures were adopted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a matter of heart,\u201d said Tunc, who has worked for five years.<\/p>\n

The ghassals are paid by the municipal government but Elal and Tunc said the demanding work is more a responsibility than a source of income.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to look at this not from a perspective of money and a job, but rather from a religious duty,\u201d Elal said.<\/p>\n

Elal says her father and husband did not at first support her decision, at age 17, to become a ghassal. But now family is her biggest moral support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had regrets about doing this work because preparing the corpse is the last service to a person. My faith and spirit are satisfied,\u201d Elal said, adding that being with someone in \u201ctheir final moment\u201d made up for the difficulties.<\/p>\n

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Eda Elal has prepared corpses for burial in accordance with Islamic rituals nearly half her life, but says her job as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":125134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTurkey's ritual corpse washers say faith overcame COVID fears - Fin2me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/turkeys-ritual-corpse-washers-say-faith-overcame-covid-fears\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turkey's ritual corpse washers say faith overcame COVID fears - Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Eda Elal has prepared corpses for burial in accordance with Islamic rituals nearly half her life, but says her job as a [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/turkeys-ritual-corpse-washers-say-faith-overcame-covid-fears\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-07T10:33:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Turkeys-ritual-corpse-washers-say-faith-overcame-COVID-fears.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/turkeys-ritual-corpse-washers-say-faith-overcame-covid-fears\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/turkeys-ritual-corpse-washers-say-faith-overcame-covid-fears\/\",\"name\":\"Turkey's ritual corpse washers say faith overcame COVID fears - 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