The battle over wearing the Muslim hijab at public universities in secular Turkey
Young women studying at public universities are prohibited from wearing the hijab head covering, despite living in a Muslim country. Photo by Katie Kriz.
A group of 19 Northeastern University journalism students – 13 writers and six photographers -- is traveling through Jordan and Turkey as part of the school’s Dialogue of Civilization program.
ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkey is a country with a population that is 99 percent Muslim. Yet the women who wear a hijab, or headscarf, still struggle for acceptance at universities.
Sedya Kinaci, a student at Istanbul University, wears her hijab at all times as a fundamental part of her Islamic practice and her personal identity.
Yet some professors demand that Kinaci and other women like her remove their scarves before entering the classroom.
“The first time I had to remove [my headscarf] for a lesson, I was angry,” Kinaci said, speaking through a translator. “I cried... At the beginning of the situation, I felt guilty, but as time passes, I got used to it.”
To emphasize Turkey as a secular state, headscarves are legally banned from public places, including government buildings and public universities. Though traditionally viewed as a sign of religious expression, an ongoing battle between secularists and fundamentalists has turned the hijab into a political symbol, representative of a push to turn Turkey into an Islamist state.
The recent victory of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP party, in the 2011 parliamentary elections, may change the legal status of the hijab.
The Islamist party has publicly relaxed the headscarf ban in the past, and its leader, Tayyip Erdogan, is a pious Muslim. His wife Emine wears a hijab. Though an official lift on the ban is sure to ignite rage and opposition from secularists, it is still unclear what will happen.
Private universities are not subject to the ban on headscarves. And though Turkey’s Higher Education Council relaxed headscarf bans at public universities in 2010, some professors make their own rules and still vigorously enforce the ban.
“Many people, and some professors, are particularly against [the headscarf] because they see it as a political instrument,” said Kivanç Ulusoy, an associate professor of political science at Istanbul University. “They are not against religion. They are secularists.”
A similar ban on the niqab, or burqa, which is the more conservative Muslim veil that covers a woman's entire face and body except for her eyes, was implemented in France in April to preserve what legislators in that country call a strict separation of church and state. Muslims across the globe have widely and loudly complained about that ban as impinging on their religious freedom.
Kassad Loyol, a Moroccan student studying in Istanbul, has followed the issue in France.
“In France, I can accept the ban because France is not a Muslim country,” Loyol said. “But Turkey is Muslim…why do I have to take [my scarf] off?”
Ulusoy said that in the past, individuals seeking the freedom to wear headscarves in public have gone to the European Court of Human Rights, an international court based in Strasbourg, France, which ultimately ruled in favor of the ban.
However, once the issue became a national concern, the Justice and Development Party became more open to allowing headscarves in public and has since relaxed the ban, causing the Republic People’s Party (known as CHP) to follow suit. While there is no official documentation of this relaxation, both parties have publicly expressed their opinions.
“Now, both leftist parties have been thinking that it’s time to relax the matter,” Ulusoy said. “I think it’s a good decision, because the issue has been exaggerated so much.”
Most professors at public universities allow students to wear scarves if they choose, said Soli Özel, a professor of international relations and political science at Istanbul Bilgi University and a columnist at Haberturk newspaper.
It was a secular interpretation of the constitution that made the wearing of the hijab “an ideological football, or ping-pong [match],” Ozel said.
“The Islamist movement used this blatant injustice, and tamper[ed] with the freedom of education, if you will, for all it was worth,” Özel said.
Ilke Civelekoglu, an assistant professor of political science at Dogus Üniversity, an English-only institution established in 1997 on the Asian side of Istanbul, said the ban is rooted in “radical understandings of secularism,” or the separation of state and religion.
“[Secularists] think Islamists are opportunists,” Civelekoglu said. “They think that once [Islamists] are in power, they will abolish the democratic regime.”
Civelekoglu has never asked students to remove a head covering.
“[That's) discrimination, it’s unacceptable,” Civelekoglu said. “Everyone has the right to an education.”
Leynep Depirmen, a student at Istanbul University, feels compromised by the phenomenon she calls, “Islamaphobia,” or fear of Islamic fundamentalists, and finds it troubling that hijab-wearing women are the only people affected by this ideological clash between secularists and fundamentalists. She says there is no equivalent of the hijab ban for men or others who outwardly express their religion.
“The cross is a symbol of Christianity, but people can wear a cross in public areas, and in the ministry of government,” Depirmen said, speaking through a translator. “Political or not, there is a misreading of freedom in Turkey. It should be a right for a person to wear [her hijab] in a university classroom.”
Five years ago, the university administration would kick students out of class for wearing a headscarf. Today, there are no formal consequences, but Kinaci said she still feels psychological pressure to remove her headscarf from certain professors.
After taking an exam for a professor who permitted headscarves in the classroom, she was approached by another professor who observed the exam.
“She came and asked me if this was my final decision to wear [the headscarf],” Kinaci said. “...Her attitude made me uncomfortable.”
Buse, a 20-year-old student at Istanbul University who asked that her last name not be used due to the political nature of the issue, has had to remove her head scarf in the past, but has not been required to this year.
As long as the AK Party remains in power, she believes headscarf rules will remain relaxed at universities. But despite the political tension, Buse said she just cannot understand professors who ban hijabs.
“It’s the same lesson, with my headscarf, or without.”
To read more from the Northeastern students:http://northeasternuniversityjournalism2011.wordpress.com/
To learn how to contribute to Passport, email Patricia Nealon at pnealon@globe.com.
