Lifting Turkey’s headscarf ban

Lifting Turkey’s headscarf ban: freedom of choice, or Islamist Trojan horse?
<!—Andrew Wood at –>10:49 AM ET

Farzana Hassan [President, Muslim Canadian Congress] and Zeynep Baysal [Director, Muslim Canadian Congress]: “The recent victory of the newly elected Islamic party in secular Turkey has spawned a reversal to traditional Islamic precept and practice in the country. This contention is confirmed by the newly elected Turkish Prime Minister’s move to lift the ban on headscarves in public places nearly a century after their prohibition by secular reformist Kamal Ataturk. The move is intended to allow Muslim women the right to express their religiosity in a more conservative manner if they so desire.

Most would agree that such a move is desirable in the interest of freedom of choice. However, ideally, in a climate of resurgent religious fundamentalism, the lifting of the ban must also be accompanied by appropriate safeguards for the rights of those who choose not to wear the headscarf.

There is no guarantee for example, that women who refuse the hijab will not be forced into adopting the practice simply because it is deemed a religious requirement by the orthodoxy. The danger in lifting the ban lies in the empowerment of a fundamentalist strain within Islam that marginalizes and oppresses women, isolating them in social enclaves and reducing their role in society to one of subservience and subjugation. An allowance for women to don the hijab in public will regrettably also provide leverage to the religious right to enforce compliance for the practice where it is not voluntary. Will the current Islamic government of Turkey also legislate to ensure that women are not coerced into wearing the headscarf? Interestingly, Merve Kavakci, a Turkish American barred from entering the Turkish parliament in a hijab, blatantly rejected the right of Iranian female legislators to appear in parliament without the headgear. Choices must work both ways.

Traditional Muslims often respond to such criticism by downplaying the social pressures faced by women who reject the hijab. This, however, is a misrepresentation of reality. Even women who supposedly opt for it, do so because they are rarely if ever exposed to an alternative exegesis on the issue, which does not regard the hijab as a requirement. Women’s “choice” in the matter can be considered genuine only if they are exposed to other narratives on modesty which do not entail the covering of the hair.

Turkey as a modern state and last refuge for secular Islam must continue to uphold its tradition of the separation of religion and state. The current government hopes to use the hijab as an Islamist Trojan horse to eliminate secularism. Here, it is useful to remember that Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country. People pray, fast, give alms and some of them choose to cover their hair, which thus far never presented a problem in the country. Islamists have now introduced the headgear as a social weapon to fight secularism, turning it into a political weapon. The headgear or hijab is a political tool and a threat to Turkey’s secular tradition. Currently, there is pressure for secular women to cover themselves even in large cities. The present government is also trying to eliminate the secular dress code in government offices. It has taken a slower, steadier path, careful not to rock the establishment too quickly while at the same time floating an occasional trial balloon for social reforms to advance the Islamist agenda.

Turkey must continue repel the Islamist onslaught in such matters. It must continue to serve as an example to other Muslim nations who are lagging far behind in terms of instituting democratic values, pluralism, egalitarianism, as well as freedom of conscience and religion.”

Read More

Tajikistan: New Curbs Target Islamic Students

New Curbs Target Islamic Students

Tajikistan’s education minister has extended official strictures on personal and religious freedoms with an assault on deeply ingrained practices at one of the country’s major institutions of Islamic learning.

Less than a year after he effectively eliminated Islamic-style head scarves in public schools, Abdujabbor Rahmonov has ordered male students at the Islamic University of Tajikistan to don suits and ties and shave their beards, and he has vowed to introduce teacher uniforms there and ban head scarves, known as hijabs.

It is the latest indication of the balancing act confronting Tajik officials who are outwardly keen to discourage unsanctioned religious practices from getting a foothold. That effort has included the closing and even bulldozing of “illegal” mosques and testing of imams to demonstrate their fitness to lead congregations.

Speaking in the Tajik capital on January 11, Rahmonov said Tajik traditional clothing — a dress reaching below the knee, worn with pants — is modest enough to wear at Islamic schools and during prayers, and does not violate Islamic guidelines.

He then ordered male students at the Islamic University to shave their beards and wear suits and ties to classes. Rahmonov also announced that a special uniform would soon be introduced for teachers at the school.

“Of course, we understand that it is an Islamic educational institute and it has certain conditions and requirements,” Rahmonov said. “However, I emphasize once again that the order and regulations in madrasahs have to be similar to the rest of the educational institutions.”

Jaloliddin Alizoda, the head of the Islamic University, said he was unaware of any imminent dress guidelines for religious teachers and declined to comment on the issue.

Female students at the Islamic school mainly wear long dresses and head scarves.

Rahmonov has described the hijab as a “foreign culture for Tajiks.” Likewise, he added that men at the Islamic University should not wear Middle Eastern-style hats.

Many in Tajikistan — including madrasah students — suggest that Rahmonov’s latest “dress code for religious students and teachers” will be met with compliance despite dissatisfaction with the new regulations.

But several male students at the Islamic University told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service that they were stunned by the education minister’s latest announcement. Some said Rahmonov’s latest revision of the dress code at the Islamic school is unnecessary because the clothing of Islamic students in Tajikistan is not radically different from that in secular schools and universities.

“This is not [an important] issue at all,” said one religious student, who did not want to give his name. “I choose my clothes to wear at home or in the madrasah the way I like them. No matter what kind of decree they issue, I will dress the way I want, with or without a tie.”

Tough To Oppose

Mahmadali Hait, a member of Tajikistan’s Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), which is the only registered Islamic political party in the region, said the minister’s order will force many of the university’s several hundred students to leave so that they can continue dressing the way they wish.

Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov has taken a hard line on outward signs of faithRahmonov said his ministry “is preparing a guideline for teachers’ clothing” and will “control compliance with the guideline.”

After announcing the enforcement of a ban on the hijab last year, Rahmonov turned up personally at universities to check whether students were obeying his order.

Despite a torrent of complaints from the students and often their parents, women wearing head scarves were not allowed to enter university buildings and were given a clear choice between the hijab and their education. Most of them eventually gave in to the ban and removed their head scarves.

One student, Davlatmoh Ismoilova, appealed to a Tajik court to defend her choice to wear a hijab. But she lost cases against the university and the Education Ministry.

It is not only a new dress code that might have an impact on the staff of the Islamic school. Rahmonov also announced that all religious teachers will have to take an exam, and those without diplomas or the required teaching qualifications will be expelled from the university.

Similar tests were given to all imams in Dushanbe mosques in August by the mayor’s office. It said that “unqualified imams have to be replaced by those who have the appropriate qualifications and knowledge.”

More than 300 unregistered mosques in the capital alone were shut down by Tajik authorities in 2007. At least two improvised mosques in the capital were bulldozed amid a drive that critics — including IRP leaders — claimed was undue pressure on Islamic institutions and values and a crackdown against religion. The Dushanbe mayor’s office said some of the former mosques will be turned into police stations, beauty salons, and community centers.

In the northern Sughd Province, the authorities warned that some 350 mosques needed to gain the proper license or they would be closed.

Government officials deny the actions represent an assault on Islam. They claim the mosque closures are simply part of an operation against unlawfully operating businesses and organizations, which include unregistered mosques.

Read More

call to ban school headscarves

EU quashes call to ban school headscarves

addImpression(“1045751_Related Video”); removeImpression(); addImpression(“1045752_Related News”); removeImpression();

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) – The European Parliament quashed an attempt on Wednesday to call European Union states to ban Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in primary schools across the 27-nation bloc.

A draft of a non-binding report on children’s rights in the European Union said lawmakers were concerned at the multiple violations of rights affecting girls from a migrant background and urged EU states to ban headscarves and hijab at least at primary school.

This would “anchor more firmly the right to be a child and to ensure genuine and unenforced freedom of choice at a later age”, the draft said.

The report was authored by Italian lawmaker Roberta Angelilli from the assembly’s centre-right UEN grouping.

But a Socialist bloc motion to reject the section on headscarves was voted through by 367 to 200, with 134 abstentions.

The wearing of headscarves in schools and at work is a sensitive topic across the European Union.

Last year, an 8-year-old Muslim girl in Spain stayed off school when told to remove her headscarf. She returned to classes after her college was ordered by the regional government of Catalonia to let her wear the traditional head cover.

The decision by the regional government contrasted with a ban on headscarves in state schools in France as well as some colleges in the Netherlands.

Britain and many other EU states allow the headscarf in the name of civil liberty, or let schools decide their own policy.

Read More