Fighting the Veil

Turkey is bitterly divided over government efforts to ease its headscarf ban. What will the courts do now?

By Grenville Byford | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 4, 2008 | Updated: 6:42  p.m. ET Feb 4, 2008

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  • Posted By: Grenville Byford @ 02/09/2008 4:45:50 PM

    TO : KaRakTeR
    Sorry but my Turkish is not up to guessing the missing letters in your post. I assume the site does not support the Turkish alphabet.

  • Posted By: Grenville Byford @ 02/09/2008 4:44:37 PM

    Sorry. Previous post was in reply to eersahin. I absolutely agree that the rights of those women who do not wish to wear a headscarf should be protected and hoped I had made that point in the piece. What I simply do not understand is why all the opponents of lifting the ban are not proposing some really serious legal safeguards. It seems like the obvious political response, yet neither CHP, nor YOK, nor any of the protesting NGO's, nor even the TSK raise the issue. Any thoughts?

  • Posted By: Grenville Byford @ 02/09/2008 4:43:28 PM

    Sorry. Previous post was in reply to eersahin. I absolutely agree that the rights of those women who do not wish to wear a headscarf should be protected and hoped I had made that point in the piece. What I simply do not understand is why all the opponents of lifting the ban are not proposing some really serious legal safeguards. It seems like the obvious political response, yet neither CHP, nor YOK, nor any of the protesting NGO's, nor even the TSK raise the issue. Any thoughts?

  • Posted By: Grenville Byford @ 02/09/2008 4:36:24 PM

    Assume you numbers are correct for a moment. I am not sure why the arguments for lifting the ban are affected just because the number of covered would be students is small. The main argument against lifting the ban by contrast collapses. If only one out of 250 students are covered, how could they possibly bring overwhelming social pressure to bear on the other 249?

  • Posted By: eersahin @ 02/06/2008 5:35:59 AM

    Women who are in the higher education are over a million. Again in numbers over 1.000.000.-
    Women who choose not to go to the university because of the headscarf ban is 4.000.
    Mr. Byford needs to carefully look into numbers before trying to manipulate the issue.

  • Posted By: KaRaKTeR @ 02/06/2008 2:58:30 AM

    Türkiyedeki bu türban tart????mas?? mustafa kemal atatürkün kurdu??u ve bütün dünyaya kabul ettirdi??i k??l??k k??yafet devrimine kar???? olan insalar??n ülkeyi bölmeye yönelik giri??mlerinden ba??ka bir??ey de??ildir
    k??n??yoruz

  • Posted By: KaRaKTeR @ 02/06/2008 2:54:56 AM

    türban meselesi türkiyenin laikli??ine gölge dü??üren yozla??m???? bir dü??ünce tarz??d??r ve mustafa kemal atatürk gibi büyük bir önderin kemiklerini s??zlatan harekettir
    k??n??yoruz

  • Posted By: mmuscio @ 02/05/2008 10:54:23 PM

    Protecting a woman's right to education while wearing the headscarf should be accompanied by an equal protection of the right of women to refuse to wear the headscarf. This is the fear among the secularist women: By condoning the headscarf that there is an unspoken, yet underlying acceptance of pressure on women who are currently uncovered, to wear the headscarf as they go about their lives.

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