Fusun’s Prohibition on Bribery for a Driver’s License

Füsun’s prohibition on bribery makes her effort to obtain a driver’s license a test of dignity as well as a practical challenge. Although the licensing process offers corrupt shortcuts, she insists that neither money nor Kemal’s influence will be used to secure her pass; after repeated failures, she succeeds on her own terms.

The licensing system and its shortcuts

Füsun’s resolve takes shape against a process in which official examinations and informal payments coexist. After she earns a perfect score on the written examination, she fails her first road test. The examiners stop her soon after she sets the Chevrolet in motion, faulting her for not looking in the mirrors; when she turns to ask what they said, they order her out of the car. The humiliating encounter leaves her demoralized, and her next attempt is scheduled four weeks later.

People familiar with the licensing agency treat the couple’s disappointment as unsurprising. They describe a network of ways to obtain a license: an expensive driving course run by retired traffic policemen, where attendance is not compulsory but a pass is effectively assured, or a larger payment to bypass the school altogether. The course includes the privilege of taking the test in a specially modified old Ford. A hole in the floor lets the candidate see colored road markings while parking, and a guide concealed behind the sun visor explains how to turn and reverse according to those marks. The process thus offers a performance of competence supported by devices and prior arrangements rather than a straightforward demonstration of driving skill.

Füsun draws a boundary

Füsun refuses to accept those arrangements. She tells Kemal that when pride or honor is being trampled, a person cannot simply bow one’s head. She is determined to obtain the license without a bribe and makes her boundary explicit: Kemal must not pay behind her back or pull strings on her behalf. She warns that she will know if he interferes and will be extremely upset. Her objection is not merely to paying the examiners who failed her; she also rejects the possibility that Kemal might use his business connections to evade the process indirectly.

Kemal agrees, looking down, and the two say little over their rakıs. His subdued response marks a limit on the assistance he can offer: the outcome must not be purchased or arranged for Füsun. They continue lessons in Yıldız Park rather than take the offered shortcuts. A policeman familiar with the licensing system explains that candidates must display awareness of its many rules, sometimes through exaggerated gestures; looking at the rearview mirror, for example, may not count unless the candidate visibly grips it. The instruction captures a system concerned not only with operating a car but with demonstrating obedience in a form officials can recognize.

Persistence and success

Füsun’s refusal holds through further setbacks. After failing three more times, she finally passes the road test in early 1984. By then the examiners have grown tired of her, while understanding that she will never pay a bribe. Her success comes through persistence within the process, not through the purchasable alternatives presented to her.

That evening, Kemal celebrates with Füsun, Aunt Nesibe, and Tarık Bey at the Maksim Gazino, where they hear Müzeyyen Senar sing old Turkish songs. The family celebration gives the achievement a social as well as personal consequence: Füsun’s independence is recognized without being secured by a transaction she had explicitly forbidden.

Significance

The rule is specific and personal: it is Füsun’s instruction to Kemal, not an abstract reform of the licensing system. Its force comes from the contrast between a bureaucracy widely understood to accommodate bribery and her refusal to let either corrupt officials or a wealthy, well-connected companion determine the result. By barring both payment and private intervention, she claims authority over how her own success is achieved.

The episode also turns an examination into a measure of character. Füsun’s perfect written score does not spare her a degrading first road test or the repeated failures that follow, but her persistence makes the eventual pass inseparable from the condition she set. Kemal can accompany her and celebrate with her family; he cannot substitute his influence for her decision.