Turkey Crosses Threshold On Islamic Headscarves
Turkey is breathing a sigh of relief after four female AKP deputies wearing headscarves to the parliament's general assembly caused only minor grumbling from the staunchly Kemalist opposition.
Fourteen years ago, Merve Kavakci, the daughter of a former dean of theology at Ataturk University and a dual Turkish-US citizen, was hounded out of the Turkish Parliament because of her Islamic headscarf. She had just been elected deputy from Istanbul in the April 18, 1999, general elections, running with the now-defunct Virtue Party led by Necmettin Erbakan, the towering figure of Turkish political Islam.
Coming to parliament in blatantly Islamic garb was a red line for staunch secularists, who considered this a serious provocation by religious reactionaries bent on undoing the modern republic established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The hooting and banging of desks in protest did not end until Kavakci was forced to leave the general assembly.
She must have known the reaction she would get, but nevertheless insisted on arriving in her headscarf, arguing that it was her basic human right to dress according to her convictions. She undoubtedly also felt that her status as an elected deputy would protect her.
The prime minister at the time, the late Bulent Ecevit, a staunch Kemalist, delivered a scathing speech against her that day, when she was also due to take her parliamentary oath. Kavakci had to leave without taking that oath. She subsequently lost the right to be a deputy, ostensibly because she had not declared her US citizenship, despite that she was not the only dual citizen in parliament.
