Kamil Pasha

 Photo from Zaman 
Mehmet Yilmaz’s column in Hurriyet:

I saw a very interesting picture published in one of Turkey’s pro-Islamic newspapers on Thursday.  To protest the Constitutional Court ruling*, a group of male students at Yuzuncu Yil University in Van marched wearing white headscarves.

 I was touched by their show of concern for their female friends to find a solution to the issue. After seeing this picture I decided to conduct an Internet search.

And what I ascertained from my research is that these circles only understand the “headscarf issue” when the subject is “women’s rights”.  They have shown no significant support for women’s efforts for equal employment opportunities, equal wages, and equal participation in politics with their protests not to be seen as second-class citizen in society.

I have never seen a demonstration conducted in the name of girls who are raped and exposed to violence in the family, or for those girls forced to marry at a very young age, nor for those deprived of their rights to an education.

Obviously, their understanding of “women rights” is limited to the “right to go to school with headscarf”. Such a right sends a message that women are second-class people in society and accepts even their right to go out, but only on the condition they are covered.

*Turkey’s Constitutional Court annulled the Islamic rooted ruling AKP-led bill lifting the headscarf ban in universities.

Tags: AKP closure case, Culture, Headscarf Debate, Rights, Women //