Tag: headscarf ban

  • Turkey bans headscarves at schools, public offices

    Turkey bans headscarves at schools, public offices

    A controversial ban on hijab has outraged Turkey’s Muslim population. The Islamic hijab is a form of Muslim women’s dress code, which allows them to exercise modesty by covering their hair with a piece of headscarf.

    The hijab has been banned by Turkish governments since the creation of Republic of Turkey in 1923.

    According to polls 97.8% of the Turkish population is Muslim. Despite the fact that it’s an obligation in Islam to wear the hijab, Turkish citizens say the majority of the population is not allowed to exercise their religious freedoms.

    The headscarf is banned in the public sector and work places. Women who work in hospitals, schools and public offices are strictly forbidden from wearing the Hijab.

    University students were also banned from wearing Hijab. However the government was forced to be more lenient with Universities, as many Turks were fleeing the country seeking a state where they could exercise their right of religious freedom.

    You will also not see any Muslim headscarves on Elementary and high schools. Parents are allowed to pick their children up while wearing Hijab but children may not wear it unless they are in private religious schools.

    There are only about 2,000,000 girls who study at religious schools in Turkey. That means Turkish laws force around 7,000,000 girls across the country not to wear their Muslim head scarf at schools.

    via PressTV – Turkey bans headscarves at schools, public offices.

  • Turkey lifts headscarf ban in religious schools

    Turkey lifts headscarf ban in religious schools

    Istanbul: Turkey has lifted a ban on female students wearing headscarves in schools providing religious education, in a move drawing criticism from secularists who see it as fresh evidence of the government pushing an Islamic agenda.

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    Education has been one of the main battlegrounds between religious conservatives, who form the bedrock of support for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party, and secular opponents who accuse him of imposing Islamic values by stealth.

    Those secularist fears were fuelled this year when Erdogan said his goal was to raise a “religious youth” and the AK Party, in power for the past decade, pushed through a reform of the education system which boosted the role of religious schools.

    Under the latest regulation, announced on Tuesday and going into effect from the 2013-2014 academic year, pupils at regular schools will also be able to wear headscarves in Koran lessons.

    via Turkey lifts headscarf ban in religious schools | NDTV.com.

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  • Women protest against Hijab ban in Turkey

    Women protest against Hijab ban in Turkey

    People in Turkey have held demonstrations in the country’s largest city, Istanbul, to protest against the ban on Islamic Hijab at universities and schools.

    231928Women protest against Hijab ban in Turkey(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – People in Turkey have held demonstrations in the country’s largest city, Istanbul, to protest against the ban on Islamic Hijab at universities and schools.

    Chanting slogans in support of the Islamic Hijab in Fateh Square in Istanbul, the protesters called for the freedom to wear Islamic Hijab in educational centers.

    The protesters also demanded that Turkish governmental organizations stop refusing to employ Hijab-wearing women.

    Despite claiming to follow Islam, the Turkish government has not lifted the ban on the Islamic Hijab in educational centers and offices.

    School and university students wearing Hijab in Turkey are regarded as the largest front of the fight against the Hijab ban in the public sector and educational places in the country.

    Following the implementation of the Hijab ban after the coup of February 28, 1997 in Turkey, many of the headscarf-wearing women have faced difficulties in their social lives.

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    via Women protest against Hijab ban in Turkey.

  • Turkey hijab ban distresses women

    Turkey hijab ban distresses women

    Turkey hijab ban distresses women

    A large number of the hijab-wearing relatives, and in particular the wives, of the members of Turkey’s armed forces have lost their emotional balance because of the country’s ban on hijab, a report says.

    School and university students wearing hijab in Turkey constitute the biggest front of the fight against hijab ban in public sector and educational places in the country, Turkey’s Moralhaber News Agency reported.

    The hijab-wearing university students, in particular, hold daily gatherings in front of universities and try to materialize their rights through lawful means.

    However, hijab-wearing relatives, especially the wives of the members of the armed forces, form another group.

    A large number of these people have lost their emotional equilibrium due to a ban on wearing hijab, with many of them having committed suicide because of the tortures they have sustained.

    Following the implementation of the hijab ban after the postmodern coup of February 28, 1997 in Turkey, many of these women have not been able to leave their homes merely because they are wearing hijab.

    Many of them were also forced to commit suicide due to pressures of criticisms and censures from neighbors and others.

    In addition, simply because of the fact that they wear hijab, they have been deprived of health care benefits in military hospitals and have been forced to sustain the pains and miseries from different illnesses.

    (Source: Press TV)

    via tehran times : Turkey hijab ban distresses women.

  • Women in Turkey: Behind the veil

    Women in Turkey: Behind the veil

    Behind the veil

    Women’s influence in politics is growing, but it is still small

    May 12th 2011 | ISTANBUL | from the print edition

    womeninturkeyTHIS week in Istanbul 13 European countries signed a Council of Europe convention on combating violence against women. All 47 members were urged to comply. Turkey pushed hard for the convention, which calls for hotlines, shelters and legal aid for abused women.

    So it should. Turkey ranks with Russia as one of the worst countries in Europe for abuse of women. By the government’s admission, five women a day were killed by abusers in the first seven months of 2009. A chilling new report from Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group, suggests that the situation is getting worse. It finds that 42% of women over 15 have suffered physical or sexual violence; they are vulnerable even when pregnant. Asli, a 21-year old Kurdish woman, was injected with poison, beaten and raped by her husband and in-laws, and locked in a barn without food or water. She decided to seek help from local prosecutors after her father-in-law burned her arm and declared that “I didn’t just get you here for my son, but also for my pleasure.” But the prosecutors never contacted her, and she now fears for her life. Asli’s story is all too common.

    Turkey’s mildly Islamist Justice and Development (AK) party is credited with making unprecedented reforms to protect women since it came to power in 2002. The laws are, however, spottily implemented. Single women, divorcees and wives taken in illegal Islamic marriages are not covered. Police often turn away victims on the grounds that “family unity must be preserved.” Hulya Gulbahar, a feminist lawyer, says that Turkey’s overtly pious prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has set the wrong tone. “His diatribes against divorce and calls for women to bear at least three children have made things worse,” she claims. Turkey lags in equality, ranking 126 among 134 countries in the 2010 Global Gender Gap Index. Another study finds that women account for four-fifths of Turkey’s 5.7m illiterate people.

    All this should provide fodder for the opposition in the run-up to a general election on June 12th. In fact, the rare talk of women in the campaign is mostly about footage posted on the internet showing candidates from the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) secretly filmed in compromising situations. The good news is that the number of women elected to the 550-seat parliament is expected to double from the current 50 (9%). But Turkey will still be behind other Muslim countries, such as Afghanistan (28%) and the United Arab Emirates (23%).

    The best news is that women are getting organised. Those battling to end restrictions on the headscarf are among the most vocal. Secular women support the campaign to force parties to accept female candidates who cover their heads. “No headscarves, no votes,” is their slogan. Although Mr Erdogan and most of his cabinet are married to veiled women, the AK has nominated only one similarly pious woman, for an unwinnable seat. Mr Erdogan’s excuse is that his party was nearly banned in 2008 because of its efforts to lift the headscarf ban. A pro-AK newspaper columnist, Ali Bulac, provoked fury when he suggested that veiled women were “spies” acting for secularists or were exploiting their plight to advance their careers. “You would rather have us stay at home and wash your socks,” riposted Nihal Bengisu Karaca, a (veiled) columnist at the forefront of the campaign. Will she vote for AK anyway? “Absolutely not,” she says.

    from the print edition | Europe

    via Women in Turkey: Behind the veil | The Economist.

  • ‘People to protest hijab ban in Turkey’

    ‘People to protest hijab ban in Turkey’

    hijapban protestors

    Turkish people are to protest against hijab ban.

    People in Turkey are set to stage a demonstration in protest at the hijab ban in the country and related restrictions, a report says.

    Members of non-governmental organizations have planned to hold a rally in the country’s northwest on April 30 to voice their anger over the ban on hijab, IRIB reported Saturday, citing a local Turkish news agency.

    The rally will be reportedly organized by the Mazlum Association in the province of Kocaeli, with the aim of pushing for complete freedom of Islamic hijab in Turkey.

    Apart from people and cultural associations in Kocaeli, people from other Turkish cities including Istanbul will also participate in the rally.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for seven years, has failed to lift the ban on hijab.

    VM/GHN/HRF

    via PressTV – ‘People to protest hijab ban in Turkey’.