Evil-eye Culture and the Fear of Being Seen in Modern Society

Evil-eye culture affects how people experience happiness, jealousy, attention, and fear. A personal reflection on superstition, protection, and modern paranoia. Evil-eye culture has always felt strangely normal around me. Someone compliments you, and immediately another person says, "Bas nazar na lage,” like happiness needs protection before it can even settle properly. Growing up around these small rituals made me realize how deeply fear and superstition are connected to the way people experience good things. I never used to think deeply about the evil eye thing because it was so normal around me. It was in tiny habits everywhere. My mom putting a black dot behind my ear when I was younger, relatives telling me not to praise babies too much, and people saying “touch wood” after literally anything good. It blended into everyday life so naturally that questioning it felt unnecessary. Kind of like questioning why we lock doors at night. But recently I started noticing how often f...