To the Editor:
The Turkish government’s lifting of the ban on head scarves in government offices (news article, Oct. 9) should not be taken as a sign of democracy, despite what Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims.
Instead, it is another insidious step toward the Islamist state he desires and against the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Don’t forget that Mr. Erdogan is the man who declared: “Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.”
Furthermore, this step diminishes rather than promotes the equal rights of women in that country. The wearing of Islamic head scarves in Turkey is quite a different thing from what it is in the United States, and American citizens and politicians should not so easily be deceived.
CAROL DELANEY
Providence, R.I., Oct. 9, 2013
The writer, emerita professor of anthropology at Stanford University, has spent years doing research in Turkey.
A version of this letter appears in print on October 14, 2013, on page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Head Scarves in Turkey.
via Head Scarves in Turkey – NYTimes.com.