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.”

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Enough is enough

VIP apparatchiks

 

“Injustice anywhere,” said Martin Luther King, “is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Therefore the world should learn and care about the story of Tevhide Kütük, the 17-year-old Turkish schoolgirl who just became the latest victim of Turkey´s self-styled apartheid.

It all started several months ago in Kozan, a municipality in the southern city of Adana. The young and bright Tevhide, a student of the state-sponsored quasi-religious “Imam-Hatip” schools, heard about the essay contest that the Education Ministry launched to celebrate the annual Teacher´s Day. She wrote a fine piece on the virtues of teaching, and submitted it to the organizing committee.

Soon the jury decided that she was the best writer among all the other students in her hometown, and thus she deserved to win the award, which was a very modest present by all standards, but a very inspiring reward for a modest teenager.

VIP apparatchiks:

On Nov. 28, Teacher´s day, Tehvide, along with other winners in poetry and painting, was invited to a ceremony at the town hall. She, of course, accepted the invitation and showed up on that day with all her enthusiasm.

After some boring speeches by the usual dignitaries, the winners of the contests were called to the stage.

With joyful music playing in the background, Tevhide cheerfully climbed the steps and exuberantly lined up with other kids in order to be congratulated and applauded.

Yet things were not destined to go right. In the VIP seats, there were a bunch of sinister men whose loyalty to tyrannical state principles exceeded their respect and care for human beings.

The moment they saw Tevhide, they were shocked and abhorred. Because the little girl was wearing the Islamic headscarf!

In official Turkey, that symbol only belongs to the untouchables, those who pollute the sacred soil of the secular republic with their offensive religious presence.

Especially army commander, Major Hüseyin Çopur, and local governor, Aydın Tetikoğlu, were deeply affronted by this little girl who dared to break the rules of the caste system.

The outlaw had to be punished, and law and order had to be restored. So, after less than a minute that little Tevhide took stage, these two men ? one in uniform, the other in unimind ? took a quick measure to save the secular republic from her.

“Take her down,” they told their aides. And a man in a black suit approached Tevhide to whisper into her ear that she had to leave the stage immediately.

She was shocked for a few seconds, and then rapidly moved away while bursting into tears. Local TV cameras were shooting the whole event. Somewhere at the back, Tevhide cried for minutes and minutes, while her parents and friends tried to calm her down.

But she neither calmed down nor decided to give up. She walked again toward the front seats, in order to speak to the VIP men. She stood right in front of the national education director. “Why don´t you give me my award, my teacher,” she asked. “This is a great injustice.”

The “teacher” ? a man with a thick mustache and apparently a thin conscience ? just looked at her with a humiliating face. “No,” he ordered, “just get back to your seat!”

There was nothing he could do, actually. As a loyal apparatchik, he was only following orders. Tevhide, who was still crying, left the hall along with her family and many other people who reacted against this official injustice.

Days have passed since that episode and the family says that the young girl is still very sad and they fear that she might get into depression.

Even if she doesn´t, she will probably remember this trauma for the rest of her life. And not just her, but millions of others in this country who cover their heads because their beliefs will continue to feel insulted and humiliated.

Shame, not happiness:

The weekly humor magazine “Leman” has a great cover this week, with the title “The tears of a young girl” and a cartoon that shows the poor Tevhide being kicked by a huge army boot. (Leman is a secular magazine, by the way. It is just non-fascist.)

I think this caricature is a very accurate depiction of not just Tevhide´s drama, but also the whole apartheid regime in this country, which is, despite all our democratic achievements, still intact.

This has to end. Now is the time for freedom for all Turkish citizens, whatever their creed, langue and way of life may be.

The unelected and self-appointed VIP´s of Turkey have to accept a “freedom chart” similar to the one that their ilk in South Africa had to concede in the ´90s.

Enough is enough. If they insist on preserving this system of organized injustice, then they will be undermining the very foundation of this country: The consent of the citizens.

I have to admit that I am already shaky in that regard. I love Turkey with all its history, people, and culture, but I can´t find a way to sympathize with its authoritarian state. It really doesn´t help much to reiterate Atatürk´s motto, “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk.” I do say that I am a Turk, but that hardly gives me happiness.

In fact, when I see all the cruelties done in this country to its people by its sovereigns, it even gives me shame.

Mustafa Akyol

Turkish Daily News

Muslim Student in Tears – Tragedy in Turkey

MEPs condemn latest ‘headscarf incident’
Cem Özdemir and Joost Lagendijk, the first members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to speak of the headscarf issue in European Union documents, have offered their opinions on an incident in which a girl was forced to leave the stage of her high school while waiting to receive a prize because she was wearing a headscarf.

Tevhide Kütük was in tears after she was forced to step down due to her headscarf.

Schoolgirl Tevhide Kütük was forced to step down from the stage of her high school after a military commander and the governor of the province shouted that she be removed, apparently due to her wearing a headscarf.

While German Greens MEP Özdemir said the reaction was a mistake, Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee Co-Chairman Lagendijk stated that he had no sympathy for such actions.

Stressing that there was no problem whatsoever among people on the headscarf issue, Özdemir said: “As in most cases, when the state intervenes, a non-issue becomes an issue. The headscarf was not a problem among the people until the state started to handle it.” Özdemir underlined that it was not possible to condone the governor and the military commander’s reaction to Tevhide. “If the objective is to fight fundamentalism, the state is doing the exact opposite. By these sorts of reactions, they actually help feed and strengthen fundamentalism” he said.

Though Lagendijk was categorically against the governor and commander’s reaction, he was more confused about how he himself should react. “I have no sympathy for this ruthless action but at the same time it is a difficult issue for me to judge. I always supported the right of girls to go to universities with headscarves but for minors going to schools with headscarves, I have a slight problem,” he said. Lagendijk stated that forcing Tevhide from the stage was absolutely the wrong way to deal with the issue, however he was concerned about whether or not those minors were forced to wear headscarves by their parents.

Özdemir and Lagendijk proposed an amendment dealing with the headscarf problem to Camiel Eurlings’ report on Turkey. Despite objections from the Christian Democrats, the amendment was accepted, making it the first time in EU history the headscarf problem was mentioned. Both the European Parliament and the European Commission have consistently dealt with religious freedom in Turkey, but insistently turned a blind eye to the problems the Sunni majority faces in respect to religious freedom.

Student in tears

On Nov. 24, during a program organized in the Kozan district of Adana to commemorate Teachers’ Day, 16-year-old Tevhide from Kozan’s imam hatip school (a vocational religious educational establishment) was forced leave the stage in tears, while waiting to receive a prize. The student, wearing a headscarf, had been waiting to receive a prize for her composition, “It Must Be Such a Teacher,” when the religious city’s director of education, Mutlu Canbolat, removed her from the stage. Canbolat acted upon the cries of “Get that off the stage!” from Garrison Commander Maj. Hüseyin Çopur and Kozan Governor Aydın Tetikoğlu. In tears, Tevhide asked Canbolat why he was pulling her off the stage. The entire audience, consisting of teachers and students and their families, joined Tevhide and left the hall immediately. The Turkish Folk Music Ensemble then performed to an empty house.

01.12.2007
SELÇUK GÜLTAŞLI BRUSSELS

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