A Turkish TikTok star blends religion with entrepreneurship for young Muslim women

In a popular video on her TikTok account, Şule Kayatürk, a Turkish influencer and beauty store owner, promises to hand out gold to employees who repent for their sins and plan to give up alcohol for the three holy months in the Islamic calendar. The clip, which has more than 5 million views and 180,000 likes, shows three employees visiting her office and hugging her before receiving their pieces of gold. One employee repents over a WhatsApp call. 

The video highlights the central theme of Kayatürk’s TikTok: being an observant Muslim who is also a high-powered businesswoman. With 2.3 million followers, Kayatürk, a makeup artist and entrepreneur, is one of Turkey’s most popular influencers. As @Sulemsi on TikTok, she makes content that’s intended to serve as inspiration for young, pious women.

Videos show her at work, at home with her husband and child, and on expensive-looking travels, with millions of views and likes. In one clip, she shows audiences how to make the Signal for Help in case of domestic violence; another shows her sighing over her singer-influencer husband, Yasin Türk, not being around for breakfast. The comments range from compliments and messages of support to criticism of the “extravagance” shown in the videos. (“Where does this money come from?” is a frequent comment.) In a discussion on Turkish user-edited dictionary Ekşi Sözlük, a follower describes being addicted to Kayatürk’s “cringe TikToks.” 

The growth of @Sulemsi is connected to the recent rise in female entrepreneurs in Turkey and the popularity of social media, according to Rumeysa Kiger, cultural influencer and long-time Sulemsi follower. “There has been a shift in capital in Turkey over the past two decades, and a new sector of society that has values different [from] secular middle classes,” Kiger told Rest of World. “In Sulemsi, we see an intersection: a young woman who is self-confident, upper-middle-class, beautiful, good at her job, trying to live her life according to her interpretation of Islam, spending her money the way she likes it.” 

Kayatürk has also filmed a music video with her husband, showing them going around Dubai in a Ferrari. As with her TikTok videos, the comments are a mix of support and disapproval over the flaunting of wealth, discouraged in Islam.

Due to the increased interest among young Muslims in chronicling their private lives, the number of social media accounts similar to @Sulemsi is likely to increase in Turkey and other Muslim-majority countries, according to Kiger. “The accounts that chronicle luxurious lives are different from motivational accounts that advise people to respect themselves, be positive, and feel grateful,” she said. “Sulemsi connects these two genres together.”