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Veiled women detained, handcuffed spark public outcry in Turkey

The latest controversy in Turkish society places people either in favor of or against the Justice and Development Party, in the ongoing fight of the "parallel state."
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Turkish police carried out simultaneous raids on 35 locations in the western Turkish town of Manisa on Nov. 10 to detain suspects of the “parallel state.” The 26 detainees included lawyers and educators, but what really caught the attention of the media were the photos of two young handcuffed women wearing headscarves.

The operation was authorized by the Manisa public prosecutor, which targeted the movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen on “reasonable suspicion.” (Since the legal amendments of December 2014, it is possible for the authorities to detain anyone on “reasonable suspicion” without the need for firm evidence.) Such procedures in Turkey are controversial as they are measures that greatly facilitate the much-discussed war on the Gulen movement, which is accused of forming a so-called parallel state. But last week’s images of handcuffed headscarf-wearing women rekindled other ghosts from the past. For decades, the headscarf has been a highly controversial political symbol in Turkey. Veiled women were demonized and marginalized by the secularist authoritarian regime under the tutelage of the military. Meanwhile, the conservative and Islamist camp, politically represented by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), idealized the headscarf as the symbol of moral, virtuous — and of course law-abiding — women. So, the handcuffing of women wearing headscarves under the rule of the AKP government, and in an AKP-led “witch hunt,” raised many questions.

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