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| Turkish government signs onto revising dress code partially lifting head scaef ban |
After over a
decade in power, Prime Minister Erdoğan finally announced that his government
has done away with the headscarf ban as part of his “Democratization Package,”
which is aimed at correcting an array of state-sanctioned injustices. As of
October 8, women in Turkey are now allowed to wear the Muslim headscarf in the
public sector, ending one of the Turkish Republic’s most stringent secular
codes. The next day, television crews were out there to get a glimpse of public
school teachers coming to school with their headscarves on. As someone
who has for years spoken against the ban, seeing these teachers was a joyous
moment; I still remember when it was also forbidden for university students
with the headscarf to enter the classroom. Good riddance to such times.
Even if there
are still some pockets of staunch secularists who vehemently oppose the right
of women to cover their heads, it seems most Turkish citizens see this as a
something of the past, and clearly unjust in its application. Simply, it was an
absurd law that was blatantly discriminatory. One voice of objection actually came
from an American emerita professor of anthropology at Stanford University,
Carol Delaney, in a letter to the editor in response to a previous article
entitled, Turkey Lifts
Longtime Ban on Head Scarves in State Offices (09 October 2013). She states:
“The
Turkish government’s lifting of the ban on head scarves in government
offices should not be taken as a sign of democracy, despite what Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims. Instead, it is another insidious step
toward the Islamist state he desires and against the secular republic founded
by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk”
What Professor
Delaney had in mind when writing this (or anyone else supporting the continued
ban) is hard to imagine since the debate over the headscarf for the most part
has been a point of contention among male politicians and not the Turkish
population at large. However, her point of view does represent one stream of
the former intolerant Turkish State’s political elite.
Erdoğan’s
revising of the dress code, however, also received a negative response among
some who have fought years for an end to the headscarf ban since the
Turkish government fell short of addressing the issue in its entirety, keeping
the headscarf ban in place in the military and police force. Further, while
woman lawyers are able to cover in court, they still cannot serve as judges or
public prosecutors. In other words, Erdoğan has legitimized the right to
restrict the headscarf in certain fields of work, something that should be seen
as a grave development in the path to freedom.
The fact that
the Prime Minister has chosen to keep the ban in these fields of work is
disappointing. While it can be argued perhaps that he chose to remain at a safe
distance from the former secularist bastion of the courts and army, we know
that over the last decade he has systematically strengthened civil institutions
in Turkey, securing a state system that is no longer threatened by military
coups; in other words, this does not hold up under scrutiny since he certainly
has the power to implement it also in these spheres. Such a decision can lead
to the conclusion that the Prime Minister might not find employment in security
forces as a proper place for religious women to serve. In other words, yes for
teachers, but not police officers.
Women are not
the only ones shortchanged in the revision of dress codes (by the way, women
public employees still need to make sure their skirt goes down to their knees
with no slit on the side). According to the current dress code, men employed in
the government sector need to be clean shaven; meaning, a man with a beard,
which also can be due to religious reasons, is still unable to work in the public
sector (while the beard is banned a modest mustache is permitted; closely
mirroring Erdoğan’s own facial features).
So what are we
to make of this? While the recent changing in the dress code should be
applauded, citizens in Turkey supporting a liberal democratic state can
actually interpret this move as a continuation of the “uniform” state, i.e.,
not a state that promotes diversity, but one that supports uniformity based
on the “State’s” will.
Further, the
move by Erdoğan to implement the changes in the dress code now, can actually be
interpreted as being motivated out of realpolitik and not out of a liberal understanding
of equal rights. With three elections just around the corner (municipality, presidential, parliamentary), Erdoğan needs to
address his own conservative base, and other political groups that have adopted
a more religious conservative agenda than his own; especially since some
liberal camps, who have supported his reforms during the last decade, are
reconsidering their support in light of the Gezi Park protests.
Perhaps it is
telling that the same day when the newspapers were congratulating the new
changes in the dress code, one of Erdoğan government ministers criticized a
woman television presenter’s dress, as it showed too much cleavage. The next
day she was fired by the television company. Truly this is a sign that in
Turkey (as many places) controversy related to a women’s dress or body, will
continue to be debated and monitored by male politicians.
While the partial-lifting of the headscarf ban is a great move towards allowing more women into the workforce, it seems that this is not topping the Turkish government’s agenda. With Erdoğan continuing to encourage families to have at least three children, if not four, heavy social pressures are being placed on Turkish women to remain in the home. Further, with Turkey’s booming economy, one would think that in terms of gender equality, Turkey would have improved; however, the opposite is true with Turkey dropping from 105 (out 135 countries) in 2006, to 124 in 2012, on the Global gender gap scale; despite this, one sign of hope is that women in the workforce has jumped from 23.3% in2008 to 29.3% in 2012 according to the Turkish Statistic Foundation (TUIK).
With huge gaps in gender
equality, the major force of debate in Turkey now should move on from the issue
of headscarves onto working towards a more gender equitable society. Unfortunately, the government’s continued partial ban on the headscarf sends a tacit
message that women are not welcomed in all fields of government employment at a time when the opposite message is needed.
