Headscarf controversy in Turkey
In the Ottoman Empire, dress codes were based on religious and ethnic principles and also served as an indicator of professional and social status. However, in the last two centuries of the Empire, with increasing interaction with the Western world, Muslim women began to abandon traditional clothings and wear garments that bore Western influences. These garments left their faces and necks exposed as outer dress. During this period, imperial decrees were issued to prevent this trend. However, the presence of some rulers and sultans, alongside the writers and artists who encouraged this change, accelerated this trend rather than halting it.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had the ambition to transform Turkey into a new modern secular state. The modernization reform program of Turkey by him abolished sex segregation and encouraged women to unveil as a part of a social revolution in order to make Turkey a modern state. He appeared in public with his wife Latife Uşaki unveiled, and arranged formal state receptions with dinner and dance where men and women could mingle, to encourage women to leave seclusion and adopt modern clothing, and in the mid-1920s, upper and middle class Turkish women started to appear unveiled in public. In 1925, the Turkish government introduced a new Family Law modelled after the Swiss Family Law, and in the same year, it banned Mahmud II's reformation hat for men to be Westernise, the fez. In 1928, the Turkish government removed the official religion provision from the constitution. Even so, Atatürk never forbade the headscarf, but did not encourage its use either. One exception to this might be the 1935 Ministry of Interior circular banning women from wearing clothing that covered their faces. While no law was passed, the ban was enforced through municipalities and law enforcement. However, this ban during the single-party era was not the first; similar practices existed in the Ottoman Empire, such as during the reign of Abdul Hamid II.
Between 80 and 90% of Turkey is Muslim, whilst a significant portion of them are Cultural Muslims. The use of veil is 40 to 50% of women in general, while only 35% of the young women are veiling. However, until the 1980s and 1990s, Turkish women held positions and served in public institutions in compliance with the secular dress codes introduced by Turkish governments. By the 1980s and 1990s, with the rise of Islamist revolutions in neighboring countries like the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the rise of the Islamist wave in Türkiye, secular segments of society, primarily the military, who dominated state institutions, declared religious extremism as the primary threat to themselves and the government. Another characteristic of this Islamist wave was the breaking away from traditional female roles that isolated women from society, and the encouragement of women entering the public sphere wearing clothings labeled as Islamic, particularly the headscarf, which they presented as "God's command." The headscarf became a topic of discussion for many Islamic writers, and later for non-Islamist writers who approached the issue from a human rights perspective, becoming a key element in the Islamist-secular conflict.
The headscarf debate in Türkiye arose as a reaction to the rise of conservatism and political Islamism, fueled by migration from rural areas to cities, and also after the secular-minded military seized power in the 1980 coup. The coup regime, in an effort to suppress right-left factions that caused divisions and deep conflicts among Turkish youth, introduced strict disciplinary rules in universities, including those concerning dress code and began to be implemented in a radical way after the 1997 military memorandum. Restrictive provisions were lifted by the democratization package in 2013, with the amendment made in article 5 of the dress code regulation, but remained in effect in the military, police force and judiciary.
The ban was lifted for Turkish policewoman's in 2016 and few months later the headscarf ban was lifted in the Turkish military, the last state institution where it remained, as the military’s opposition to the government’s reforms had been weakened following the failed 2016 coup attempt.
In 2022 both Turkey's Islamist government and the formerly secular opposition vowed to take "legal steps to enshrine women's right to wear Islamic headscarves".
History
Background
had the ambition to make Turkey a new modern secular nation. In 1925, the Turkish government introduced a new Family Law modelled after the Swiss Family Law, and in the same year, it banned Mahmud II's reformation hat for men to be Westernise, the fez. In 1928, the Turkish government removed the official religion provision from the constitution. Mustafa Kemal viewed modern clothing as an essential visual symbol of the new secular nation and encouraged both women and men to wear modern fashion, but in contrast to his law against traditional wear for men, he never introduced a ban against the hijab. However, he appeared in public with his wife Latife Uşaki unveiled and arranged formal state receptions with dinner and dance where men and women could mingle, to encourage women to leave seclusion and adopt modern clothing, and in the mid-1920s, upper- and middle class Turkish women started to appear unveiled in public.File:Latife Hanım ve Mustafa Kemal.jpg|thumb|390x390px|Kemal Atatürk and his wife Latife Uşakizade during a trip to Bursa in 1924
The Republic of Turkey had been a secular state since the constitutional amendment of 1937. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk introduced the secularization of the state in the Turkish Constitution of 1924, alongside his reforms. The suppression of hijab/headscarves and other prominent religious symbols in government institutions and public schools, led to heated controversy at times in Turkey. Specifically, it resulted in a clash between those favoring the secular principles of the state, such as the Turkish Armed Forces, and religious conservatives, including Islamists. In the early 21st century, the Justice and Development Party and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reversed this, and worked to "raise a pious generation" in Turkey, which in turn created a backlash, even lowering the religiosity among the youth.
Banning of headscarves
The Turkish government had outlawed the wearing of headscarves by women who work in the public sector in 1982. The ban applied to teachers, lawyers, parliamentarians, and others working on state premises. The ban on headscarves in the civil service and educational and political institutions was expanded to cover non-state institutions. Female lawyers and journalists who refused to comply with the ban were expelled from public buildings such as courtrooms and universities.In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the number of university students wearing headscarves increased substantially and in 1984, the first widespread application of the headscarf ban came into effect at universities, but throughout the 1980s and 1990s the ban was not uniformly enforced and many students were able to graduate. The headscarf ban in public spaces, including schools and universities, courts of law, government offices and other official institutions, was only for students, workers and public servants. Hence, mothers of pupils or visitors had no problems at all entering the primary schools, but they were not able to work as teachers. Similarly, at the courts of law, the ban only involved judges, attorneys, lawyers and other workers. Wearing headscarves in photos on official documents like licenses, passports, and university enrollment documents was also prohibited. Universities and schools refused to register women students unless they submitted ID photographs with bared hair and neck.
A regulation dated 16 July 1982, specified that: the clothing and appearances of personnel working at public institutions; the rule that female civil servants' head must be uncovered.
An interpretation of this law in 1997 extended the ban to the wearing of headscarves in all universities in Turkey. The debate over headscarves in universities was the most contentious of all and was an important element in the early 21st century politics of Turkey.
Education
From 1997 to 2013, the Turkish military banned headscarves from all tertiary educational institutions on the ground that they were incompatible with secularism. This ban was lifted after 2013, but there was still a great divide between women who wore headscarves and those who did not when it came to attaining an education. From 2003, when the Justice and Development Party and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gained power, they stated that they promoted education for women with programs such as "Hey Girls, Let's Go To School". According to journalist Aslı AydıntaşbaşHowever, their goal was not to deliver gender equality. Like many of those that came before him, along with the history of Turkey that dates back to the ancient Ottoman Empire, which was an Islamic nation, women were seen as wives and mothers, not individuals who were meant to receive an education from any institution. Turkish society was a patriarchal society, and because of that, education for women was not popular amongst the public. The acquisition of education for headscarved women, along with the fact that although the ban has been lifted, it is still difficult for these women to receive an education, is all a part of Erdoğan's agenda to promote Islamic beliefs and practices in Turkey. This idea of keeping women as housewives and mothers, not individuals who can obtain an education, is a prime example of what the Turkish prime minister advocates called "Sunni Muslim Domination.". Turkey is a predominantly Muslim and Patriarchal Society; In Turkey, they look towards the Islamic faith and their interpretation of said faith to influence the practices of society.
After the ban was lifted decades after its initiation, it became difficult for women, both with or without a headscarf, to receive an education. Even though many steps have been taken to progress women's equality in Turkey, there has not been any subsequent or substantial evidence so far that proves that the ban on the acquisition of education for headscarved women did reduce the number of those women who received any credentials from these institutions. Based on the patriarchal and Islamic government and society already in place, the number of women who are educated was already low. Before this ban, in the late 1970s going to the early 1980s, there was an uptick in the number of university students who wore headscarves, and some managed to graduate with full credentials; however, after 1984, the ban spread across all schools, yet was not enforced until 1997.