Turkey's New Dress Code and the Fashion of Islam

By Tracy Dove, Ph.D
Editor, The Russia News Service

February 11, 2008

Respect for conservative religious values is essential, and the wealthy urban elite are leading the crusade for more piety. No, these aren't paroles taken from the secret agenda of the Mitt Romney campaign, and its not an election spot for Huckabee, although it sounds like it; Turkey is moving on a steady path toward prosperity, middle class independence and- ironically- greater religious piety. This week the Turkish parliament voted overwhelmingly to lift the ban on the Muslim headscarf in universities, and the decision has polarized the country into two opposite groups: the Kemalists on the secular side and the growing force of middle class Islamism on the other.

Understandably, the controversial ruling could be expected from the conservative Justice and Development Party that has won control in the parliament and presidential offices. Despite the legality of the vote last week the opposition parties in parliament have promised to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court, but until then conservative Turkish men and women are greeting the decision as a re-affirmation of religious freedom in Turkey. Ironically, those who want to see the re-appearance of the headscarf are the wealthier and more prosperous urban Turks and not the village periphery that traditionally favor conservative in Islamic values. This would probably surprise the state's founder, Kemal Attaturk, who believed that modernism and a secular Turkish state would automatically relegate religion to an inferior position. He was wrong.

The attempts at forcing through reform in the Turkish State goes back further than Attaturk's drastic measures of the 1920's. In the 19th century the Ottoman Empire was crumbling under its own weight when the so-called Tanzimat reforms were introduced in 1839 to modernize- and essentially Europeanize- education and state bureaucracy. By the end of the 19th century the reforms had found resonance in the schools and universities, and modern theories were being taught to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. For the first time in Muslim lands, principles of the Enlightenment were finding their way into the minds of the country's youth, and this would change at least the Turkish part of the Empire forever.

Among the country's educated elite was Kemal Attaturk, a young officer dissatisfied with Ottoman State which committed political suicide in 1914 when it joined the Axis partners in world War I. By the time the war was over the Ottomans were gone and a modern Turkey had risen on the eastern border of Europe thanks to the efforts of that educated elite. As the country's first executive, Attaturk shocked the conservatives when he gave women the vote and angered the men when he banned the all-popular Fez which most Turkish men wore. From the 1930's the country stumbled along the path of secularism without their religious headgear on and in this way Islam was temporarily banished to the sidelines.

Interestingly it was Attaturk's success at building modern Turkey that created the foundation for a new political party to form in the 1970's, which attacked the very roots of secularism. The Refah- or Welfare- Party began as an urban working class movement that drew its support of the conservative elements which had arrived from the provinces in search of work. As Turkey and its cities became more affluent, so did the Islamic elements carried by that new middle class make headway into business and government spheres. While the progression of the traditional movement has been slow it is nonetheless steady; judging from the overwhelming success of the Justice and Development Party and President Erdogan's support of so-called "religious freedom", it seems that Islamism has finally hit the mainstream of Turkish society- only dressed slightly differently. The reality has alarmed the Kemalists who now find themselves on the wrong side of the freedom argument as they try to restrict the democratic process and retain- by force- the headscarf ban.

Since September 11, 2001, the secularists argue, Talibanism has been slowly creeping into Turkey and it is doing so on the coattails of the Justice and Development Party. It is widely expected that the Turkish Supreme Court will strike the measure down, and most likely Turkish society will pour into the streets again in support of Erdogan's program. If the secularists decide not to uphold the ban and give in, the headscarf just might become a regular fixture again as part of the stability pact in secular Turkey.

Tracy Dove, editor of The Russia News Service, is a Professor of History and Dean of Summer Programs for the Lessing Institute. He also teaches history at the Anglo-American College in Prague.

See all previous articles by Tracy Dove here.