The evil eye is a belief that a person can harm you,your children,  or your belongings simply by looking at them with envy and praising them.  Jealousy, envy, or praise can inflict all kinds of misfortune. The penetrating look is believed to cause illness, injury, or death upon its intentional or unintentional target. Most common is the belief that the evil eye can cause things to whither away or dry up -- the loss of crops, drying up of milk in nursing mothers, impotency in men, illness among children, are all commonly attributed to the evil eye.

As in many cultures, the concept of the evil eye is a very important aspect in the daily Turkish life. The strength of the belief is evident everywhere you look as the Turks use different protective talismans to fend off the power of the evil eye. Baby clothes and cribs will feature an evil eye pin, cars will have an evil eye hanging  on the rear-view mirror while homes will have various forms of wall hanging evil eye throughout.  The object is to protect your loved ones or your possessions from the effects of the evil eye.

The belief of the evil eye has no religious boundaries as it coexists with almost every religion from Christianity to Islam. It is in fact mentioned in the Old Testament and a big part of the Jewish folklore as well. Throughout history , the evil eye has affected the lives of many and has shaped many cultures in their beliefs and behaviour.

Today, belief in the evil eye is very much alive, especially so in Italy, Greece, Turkey, India, South America, and the Arab world. All these cultures have different names for the Evil Eye from "Mal Ojo" in Spanish to " Baskania " in Greek. Indians call it "Drishtidosham and the Arabs call it " Ayin Harsha" .

Regardless of the word they use to refer to it, one thing is for certain . While there are many who insist the evil eye is nothing more than good old-fashioned superstition, to the believers of the evil eye its powers are nothing to be taken lightly.