Fear over the headscarf

 

 

The contentious subject of headscarf is top of the agenda yet again in Turkey as a move to lift the ban has been approved by the Turkish parliament. In the first two rounds of voting, the parliament voted 401-110 and 404-99 in support of constitutional revision to end the 28-year ban on headscarves in universities.

The move is turning out to be profoundly controversial with opposition branding it a danger to the secular foundation of Turkey. Demonstrations against lifting of the ban have been held all over the country. Still, the latest opinion polls show a majority of Turks support lifting the ban; 6 out of 10 women wear headscarves. The incumbent AK Party, which has roots in Islam, says it wants to permit the headscarf on campuses to heighten “religious and personal freedoms”.

Nevertheless, an establishment faction such as the judiciary, business conglomerates and a section of academics have all flayed the move. The die-hard secularist military has declined to get caught up in the dispute but has categorically made it apparent they are studying events circumspectly. The move has invited sharp but fractured reactions. “The real trouble is the threat of this liberty spreading to all civic areas, and also infecting primary and secondary schools, hospitals and the judiciary as time passes,” says Mehmet Ali Birand, a liberal reviewer of Turkish political and social affairs while talking to TSI. On the other hand, political analyst Prof. Ihsan Dagi disagrees with this line of thought and maintains that the “universities should be apprehensive not with bans but freedom and education.”

Meanwhile, critics of the regime express the apprehension that Turkey, while hopeful of full EU membership, may in reality slip into a restrictive, religious social order. On the contrary, promoters of the move see it as a stride towards freedom of expression of the kind Western universities benefit from. Wearing of the headscarf in universities was banned after the 1980 putsch. While its populace is overwhelmingly Muslim, Turkey is a sternly secular state.