Ever since Adam and Eve, men and women have had a kind of gender warfare, to which, as determined from the beginning, there will never be a winner. Therefore, it may be wiser to admit the gender imbalance of power imposed by religions and societal norms, and, as a consequence of such imbalance, put debates — such as the one below — in a framework that questions how a democratic, secular state approaches such imbalance, and whether it provides equal opportunity and freedoms to all.
The Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in Turkey has insisted on two points since they came to power over a decade ago: that the state stays loyal to its secular traditions and that it never interferes in people’s lifestyles. “I’m a secular person, but if you put me against Islam — then I am not, because it’s the state that needs to be secular,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in May 2007.
