Istanbul

The Istanbul scene

Istanbul’s kink community has long been discreet. In 2019 The Daily Beast described the city’s BDSM scene as secretive but growing, with more than 500 members, and visited a munch of no more than thirty people held out of public view. Within that scene, ShibariTurkey began in June 2018 as a rope project called ShibariTürk, with the stated aim of helping traditional Japanese shibari develop in Turkey, according to its ShibariNews profile.

A school and a community

ShibariTurkey says that since 2018 it has organized trainings, workshops and themed parties, the parties four times a year in partner nightclubs with its own security staff, and that it has built communities through workshops and events in İzmir, Ankara and Istanbul. It describes its approach as queer and feminist, open to people of every sexual orientation and identity, and stresses safety, consent and a clear stance against violence. Next to its teaching it makes handmade leather goods and runs a shop.

The school says it runs its workshops and trainings in its own studio. Its program page for 2026 describes a foundation course in two stages. Shibari 101 consists of three three-hour sessions, Beginners, Fundamentals and Next Level, that move from history and tradition, consent and negotiation, health, safety and risk, and rope handling through the single column tie and double column tie, frictions and simple body and leg forms, to an introduction to the takate kote and the planning of a floor scene. Shibari 102 follows with three more sessions. The school says its trainings include English support for international participants, that doctors and nurses on its team teach anatomy and health, lawyers cover the legal side, and occupational-safety and mountaineering instructors cover hardpoints and stage setup.

According to its site, its Community Rope Jam is free, takes up to eight people at a time and starts with an introduction for anyone new to the space or to the format. It is open only to people who have already attended one of its munches or trainings, and no partner is needed.

Film and art

The group has also become a subject of film. Shibari Turk I, a nine-minute short by Yavuz Kurtulmuş released in 2023, uses performances to tell how the ShibariTurk association began, centred on the rope relationship of two members of its team; a second short followed.

What the city offers now

The school’s pages describe a path from the foundation course or private lessons to the community jams. ShibariTurkey’s site is in Turkish with an English version. Visitors should check current conditions before traveling; Rope when you travel covers how to approach a scene in an unfamiliar city.