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Erdogan Plays Headscarf Card

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken up the cause of his "covered sisters" to deflect attention from his own policies toward both the protesters and women.
Women cover their faces as they try to avoid tear gas during protests at Kizilay square in central Ankara, June 16, 2013. The unrest, in which police fired teargas and water cannons at stone-throwing protesters night after night in cities including Istanbul and Ankara, left four people dead and about 5,000 injured, according to the Turkish Medical Association. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX10Q1T

On June 11, nearly two weeks into the mass anti-government protests that were rocking Turkey, the country’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out against the demonstrators yet again. This time, in a fiery speech before lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

In addition to his well-worn tirades about the protesters being “hooligans” and agents of a global conspiracy, he spoke of the plight of a woman who covered her head Islamic style. The woman in question was the daughter-in-law of “one of my very important and close friends,” he told a rapt audience in parliament. “They dragged her on the streets near my office [in Istanbul] and attacked her and her child,” Erdogan thundered but gave no further details, thereby prompting a flurry of excited speculation.

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