Read Soner Cagaptay’s important critique of the AKP’s social policies in Newsweek (click here for full article)
…The AKP’s stance on social issues also suggests a return to traditional religious values. While it touts its proposal to allow young Muslim women to wear Islamic-style headscarves in universities as a move toward a true freedom of religion, […]
Photos from Zaman
A diverse crowd of thousands of people (Zaman claims 20,000) marched in Istanbul on Saturday to support democracy and to protest the coup that many believe is occurring as a result of the Constitutional Court case against the ruling AK Party. A variety of non-governmental organizations were represented and the march […]
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 […]
I would like to thank a reader for calling the following article to my attention:
Two liberal theologians have taken Turkey’s most famous Islamic clothes designer to court, alleging the couturier is exploiting religion for personal profit. The case is highlighting the growing tension between Islam and the country’s market economy.
Dubbed “Allah’s tailor” by the press, […]
With a vote of nine to two, Turkey’s Constitutional Court decided yesterday to annul constitutional amendments that would have allowed women to wear the Muslim headscarf at Turkish universities. This decision came despite the fact that last month the court rapporteur Osman Can had recommended that the case be thrown out, arguing that while […]
Excerpts from an essay by Ahmet Kuru on the SSRC blog (The Immanent Frame):
Last March, the Chief Public Prosecutor of Turkey’s High Court of Appeals opened a closure case against the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, which had received 47% of the votes in an 18-parties election eight months ago. The prosecutor asked the […]
The Constitutional Court rapporteur has recommended the rejection of an appeal by two Turkish opposition parties to annul a constitutional amendment pushed through by the ruling AK Party that would give headscarf-wearing women the right to attend university. The rapporteur’s report is not binding on the court’s decision, but his conclusion that the amendment was […]
Some of the results of a 2007 study on middle-class identity in Turkey by Dr. Hakan Yilmaz of Bosphorus University: (JW: I find it particularly intriguing that the headscarf is not seen as a symbol of piety, but of good character, as I have long argued that the meaning of “covering” to those who practice […]
Click here for an interesting approach to the headscarf debate in an essay by Prof. Ayse Kadioglu. Here is a quote from her essay:
Interestingly, there are two different styles of headscarves: the traditional one is called basörtüsü, and is worn by women who are considered “peasants” even though they live in big cities. They usually […]