The party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will table an amendment to the Constitution to engrave in stone the right to wear, or not, the Islamic headscarf in everyday life.
The ruling party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preparing to table in Parliament an amendment to the Constitution to engrave in stone the right to wear, or not, the Islamic headscarf in everyday life, in high school and in the office.
In this secular state, the very political decision a few months before the elections revives a debate that the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, had wanted to close at the beginning of the 20th century.
Proof that the subject is topical: in the hit Netflix series “Bir Baskadir”, which confronts a young (veiled) peasant woman with two shrinks, urbanites and emancipated, one of them lets go while zapping in front of her TV: “It’s the new fashion: in all the series now there is a veiled girl”. The approach of presidential and legislative elections next year has convinced President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step up, even brandishing the possibility of a referendum on the issue.
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Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power since 2003 and his Islamo-conservative party, the AKP, hope to remain at the head of the country. But it was his probable competitor, the leader of the opposition and of the historically secular party, the CHP (social democrat) of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was the first to revive the question by accusing the president of wanting “Keep veiled women hostage”.
Bans lifted
Kemal Kiliçdaroglu thus wanted to reassure conservative circles by assuring that once elected, he would enshrine in law the right to wear the headscarf. “Is there discrimination against the veiled or not veiled today in the public service? In schools? Nope!”returned Recep Tayyip Erdogan to him by seizing the debate. “We did this!”
“Discouraged” in the name of modernity at the proclamation of the Republic, then gradually banned in education and the public service, the Islamic headscarf has been reintroduced step by step since 2008. The AKP first lifted the ban on university, then in college, in the civil service, in Parliament and even in the police.
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Measures received in Turkey as a liberation of women’s rights and on which they do not want to go back, explains Berrin Sönmez, historian, activist and ardent defender of women’s rights. “Those who consider the headscarf as a religious symbol contrary to the principle of secularism should understand that this is discrimination: prohibited or compulsory, the headscarf is the same violation of women’s rights if the rule is imposed by the State“, insists Berrin Sönmez, herself covered.
Faced with the objections of some feminists and the serious economic crisis that is shaking the country, she argues that “ensuring that veiled women can exercise their rights (…) is a means of preventing economic crises and increasing the level of human development” allowing them to study and work.
In the absence of a recent study, she estimates that half of Turkish women wear the headscarf – in 2012 they were 65%. “Not understanding it is incomprehensible to me”she adds. “The bill of [Kemal] Kilicdaroglu is an important measure to oppose Erdogan”concludes this intellectual, opponent of the outgoing president.
“Ideal woman”
Because for Turkish feminists, who ardently support the Iranian women’s revolt movement, the head of state above all wanted to ensure the support of the most conservative fringes of this country – with a Sunni Muslim majority.
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“The secular headscarf ban and (lifting it) were both launched in the name of women’s emancipation. In reality, both sought to impose their own vision of the ideal woman.says Gönül Tol, founding director of the Turkey Program of the Middle East Institute, in an article posted on the site. ‘Lifting the headscarf ban is emblematic of Erdogan’s broader Islamist populist agenda’she complains. “He never really wanted to liberate (women), whether they wore the headscarf or not. For him, women are only mothers or wives, not individuals.insists the researcher.
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“The key to really liberating them is…to legislate on women’s right to choose. Deciding when or whether to be pregnant, how many children to have, or whether or not to wear a headscarf, women must be free to choose for themselves“, she hammers.
A website entitled “You will never walk alone” is also aimed at women who, forced to wear the headscarf by their families, now take it off.
Opposite, the AKP party has offered in recent months a “support” supported several demonstrations against the rights of LGBT people and for “the defense of the family”. In whose ranks the women appeared all veiled.