The Headscarf

Today the Turkish parliament approved a constitutional amendment that relaxes the ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf. Specifically, it allows women to leave their headscarves on upon entering university campuses and classes. Ever since I learned of this law, I've strongly believed that it should be overturned. The newspapers quote some Turkish lawmakers who believe, however, that the relaxing of the headscarf ban will plunge universities into "chaos and lead to the disintegration of the state." Such hyperbolic rhetoric, mind you, is typical of nationalist and secular Turks, especially many of the elite do-nothings in parliament. For the entire life of Modern Turkey, power has been in the hands of the secular elite, and now they're scared shitless of permanently losing that power to the populist, mildly Islamic party occupying the prime ministerial and presidential positions, as well as holding an overwhelming majority in parliament. In spite of, or perhaps I could say because of, their Islamic roots, they have enacted changes that deal fairly with both the secular and Islamic population. I believe it is a victory for democracy and the freedom to practice one's religion in a non-confrontational manner. Nonetheless, many see the headscarf as just that-political confrontation. To some it is a symbol of a perceived threat of Sharia law, and many secular Turks are so paranoid that they've declared, just as they did in the mid 90's, that Turkey has begun its slide down the same slippery slope that doomed Iran to Islamic theocracy.

I couldn't disagree more. I recently read a book called Star and Crescent, by a journalist named Steven Kinzer. In one chapter he talks about the headscarf ban, and he interviews some female PhD candidates who had dropped out of university because they could no longer go to classes wearing their very customary and very meaningful headscarves. He remarks that he thinks Ataturk would much rather see young, devout Muslim women clamoring for PhD's than clamoring at the nearby McDonalds for lunch because they can't go to class. Ataturk, in fact, wanted the uneducated Muslim population to advance, which begs two questions: (1)Why, in an effort to advance a nation, should a large amount of its population be barred from higher education because of a simple piece of cloth, and (2)If those students choose to remove their headscarves, how does such an action at the level of higher education teach a nation acceptance of religious and cultural diversity, a cornerstone of every successful, modern democracy?

An anecdote: tonight I went to Starbucks in Ortakoy to study my Turkish. There two covered girls came in, which happens far less than it should. In fact, I couldn't for the life of me remember when I'd last seen such an occurence. I watched them from my seat above, and judging by their wide smiles and giddy chit chat, I decided they had come out for a celebratory frappuccino. Their faces were filled with hope, with vindication, with a new sense of possibility. They began taking pictures of each other on their cell phones, leaning their covered heads over the screen, laughing and pointing. I thought about how common the headscarf was during my two years at CUNY Hunter in New York, how nobody judged another for his or her religious devotion. In fact, Hunter and the entire CUNY system thrives because of this religious and political harmony. I'm happy to see that Turkey seems to be coming around, however small those steps towards progress and tolerance are.