Headscarf debate returns to Turkish politics at initiative of secularist opposition
The CHP becomes proactive against Erdogan's "religious populist games."
ISTANBUL — As women tear off their headscarves in Iran in protest of the regime, Muslim women’s right to wear the headgear has re-emerged on Turkey’s political agenda ahead of the elections.
This week has seen first the opposition and then President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raise the headscarf issue for national debate as the country enters the pre-election cycle.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey’s second-largest party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said on Oct. 4 that he would introduce a law to protect the right to wear a headscarf in public institutions.
In an apparent bid to seize back the initiative on an issue that his Justice and Development Party (AKP) has long seen as its own, Erdogan the next day ordered a constitutional change to enact the same protection.
