How the Turkish opposition lifts the taboo on the hijab debate

Women (some wearing hijabs) at a rally in support of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who leads the opposition coalition. Photo: Alp Eren Kaya/Depo. Photo credit: ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

In the latest commercial for the historically secular opposition party CHP in Turkey, a young woman wearing a hijab offers her child freshly squeezed orange juice while he fills a lunch box with apples.

The scene is the same routine as it comes, but wearing a headscarf would once be unthinkable for a party that for decades has embraced the Kemalist vision of secular Turkey, where women wearing Islamic head coverings were banned from working in public places. sector or study at the university.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's fight against the ban was a defining feature of his presidency, including the lifting of restrictions on the wearing of hijabs in public offices in 2013.

But, feeling his best chance of overthrowing him in years, when the Turks came to the polls On May 14, the Turkish opposition flirts with conservative voters disillusioned after his two decades in power.

Apart from plans to reverse Erdogan's economic policies, reduce the presidency and restore the power of parliament, they also promised to protect women's right to wear the hijab anywhere.

For most of Erdogan's career, the fight for the right of moderate Muslims to wear the hijab was the big winner of the vote, but now it's a given. Photo: nick

After Mr. Erdogan promised to draft a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to Islamic clothing, his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu released a video promising to «heal the wounds of our country» and enshrine the hijab in a new law. The change in policy in October was a watershed moment for Mr. Kilicdaroglu, who voted in 2008 to keep the headscarf ban in place.

Hejab-wearing female students have been a major part of Erdogan's political base ever since he lifted the ban on wearing the veil in public institutions, introduced after the military coup in Turkey in 1980.

Thanks to Erdogan's reforms, young women wearing hijabs fill Turkish classrooms, crowd coffee shops to share cigarettes with friends, and work in government. a broad coalition clearly understands that he needs the support of these voters to win.

Goes to university

If she had been born ten years earlier, Merve, a 35-year-old headscarf-wearing English teacher from the Black Sea town of Rize , would not be able to enter the university.

«I'm not an Erdogan fan, but right now I don't see any other options,» she told The Telegraph. “By supporting him, I maintain my freedom. I want to be treated the same as women who don't wear the hijab.»

However, Merve criticized Erdogan's crackdown on free speech and his attitude towards the economy, saying her rent for doubled in a year, even as rising inflation affected her teaching salary.

In another sign that Erdogan may be struggling to maintain support among conservative women, many have said they believe their right to Islamic dress is no longer under threat.

At the square by the sea in Uskudar, one of the most conservative districts of Istanbul, Turkey's economic problems appeared. be a more urgent matter.

Derya Borekci, a 43-year-old accountant, says she's more concerned about the sluggish economy and job prospects than the country's rules on Islamic dress.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, campaigns in Istanbul Photo: Burak Kara/Getty Images

«I used to vote for the AKP, but I'm not going to do it anymore,» she said, citing a recent government decision that will push back her retirement age. «The headscarf is out of date.»

Just two decades ago, young women wearing hijabs, joined by their secular peers, chanted in the streets of Istanbul demanding their right to education.

Moderate Islam

Now many young conservative voters see how Turkey is taking moderate Islam for granted.

One of his most influential supporters, Temel Karamollaoglu, leader of the conservative Felicity Party and one of Turkey's most influential supporters -on Kilicdaroglu, is campaigning across the country to convince his voters not to support This time, Mr. Erdogan.

“Most of the people who voted for the AKP understand that this religious freedom will continue,” he told The Telegraph on the sidelines of an election campaign in Trabzon on the Black Sea.

On the issue of headscarves, Mr. Karamollaoglu said that trusts Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu's assurances that there will be no change in this regard. “This page is definitely closed,” he said.

Experts believe that Erdogan's party is losing control of the conservative vote.

“For a long time, the AKP monopolized the center. — right and conservative voting,” Bilge Yabanci, a researcher at Ka' University, told The Telegraph. Foscari in Venice and Northwestern University in the USA.

“Now in the opposition bloc we see parties that represent different shades of right-wing ideology and Islamist conservatism. For many people these days [elections] are no longer about choosing between secular and conservative ideologies, but between democracy and autocracy, the rule of law and corruption.”

Deniz Barysh Narli contributed to this report.