Scarf Wars

these headscarves make women look more attractive, i think. i know i begin to focus on women's eyes and lips when they wear these. i'm more curious whether it's ok to approach a woman wearing one?

pressrecord - of course you can approach a woman wearing a head scarf...Though it is best if you have a woman with you at the time (it is considered impromper for a man to approach a woman by himself when they don't know each other)

Thanks to Current and Miss Ling for reporting this story. Istanbul is home away from home for me...seeing the bars in Taxim and the view of the bosphorus from Ulus again was like hugging an old friend...

However, i think the issue could have been covered more thoroughly...excuse the pun...as many of my Turkish friends are more concerned about an Iranian or Talaban type party emerging from the AK...They aren't so worried about the head scarves (as almost all of those interviewed said) as they are about full body covering. Istanbul is extremely European with a middle eastern charm...More details from the small, rural towns would have been interesting.

All the same, i thoroughly enjoyed the story and the style with which it was reported. Thanks again!

was this really a scarf war? it seemed a lot more like an american creating an issue where none really exists... at least yet.

I agree with rawrfee, its become more of an issue with the government than with the people. As you can see, most of the interviewees explained that its purely by choice whether a woman should wear a head scarf or not. Being half Turkish, I grew up with many women who wore the scarf and not once felt the pressure to cover myself in order to prove that I am Muslim. Great interviews, could have been a bit shorter because the topic became a bit redundant but you definitely covered many of the crucial points in confronting the scarf conflict.

This was a very nice work quoting both sides of the argument. I liked watching it.

I think the big conflict is that, opponents of the headscarf in Turkey think headscarf is something that makes the country less modern. These people are the biggest supporters of western democracy but they fail in their sincerity when they don't respect covering which should be viewed merely as a choice of style.

Most women wear the scarf as this is a recommendation in the religion they believe in, or they don't feel comfortable dressing up in western style as opposed to using scarf as a symbol of their ideology.

The head scarf is NOT an Islamic practice but rather a cultural thing. Before the onset of the Ottoman empire dominating the whole Muslim world at its peak women had as much rights as men.

The Ottoman empire imposed TURKISH values on the rest of the Islamic world. If you go read a book called "A short history of Islam" you will discover that in the Arab world, women were ALLOWED to seek a divorce from their husbands hundreds of years before this practice was taken up in the western world. Women were also said to have fought in wars side by side with men although only if there was a shortage of able bodied male warriors and it was by choice for any woman to do so.

The Prophet was always seeking the adive of his wives so much so it annoyed some of his followers that he would hold women in such high regard.

The wearing of a veil or scarf and a woman being killed by her husband for committing an act that was ok for him to do is just the continuous domination of women by men.

Non secular countries have NO place in today's world.

Roc

Editor, WHORESNEVERLEARN.COM

Overall an excellent addition to the Vanguard series by Laura. You tried very hard to balance both sides of the issue and get a sense for where things are heading. Coming into Turkey without a detailed background and trying to make sense of the many variables in this complicated country is something most journalists fail to do (NYT's current reporter) but your pods show once again how current is keeping journalism alive.

The last segment of the pod was trying to tackle a much larger issue in such a short time, I think it really should have been the point of the entire broadcast instead of the headscarf.

That being said, there were a couple issues on the piece I think could have been elaborated on. Even secular-minded people would agree that women should be able to wear scarfs; the problem is the majority of women really don't have a choice due to family and social pressure.

Outside of the more affluent neighborhoods in the broadcast women face harassing comments for not dressing conservative enough. News articles of the past year show several times where single women were harassed by men on the beach or public parks.

Personally I'll put more emphasis on what these headscarfed women are saying when they have rallies showing support to the women who are harassed and sexually assaulted while NOT wearing headscarfes. Otherwise they don't seem to care about all women, just their women.

If AK party is serious in its reforms it not only needs to push for freedom for conservative women, but also check conservative men who feel more empowered to push their ideas of public attire onto other women. Like the headscarfed woman from Zaman said, the situation for women in Turkey is not that bright still. I think first of all we need to address the issue of the men in the country; the women already know it isn't right.

Let's not forget the Prime Minister's famous quote while he was mayor of Istanbul. "Democracy is like a streetcar, you ride it until you reach your destination." While he may say he doesn't believe that anymore, words like this make many pious Turks nervous.

There are also many actions, especially done by local municipalities controlled by AKP, that make secular-minded Turks nervous. Actions like the city of Antalya suddenly taking down a statue that has been there for years, on the grounds it is now seen as "obscene". There are still more mosques being built than schools, but only the latter are in dire shortage due to a massive population under 18.

The recent seizure of one TV station made Turks nervous, especially when the prime minister's brother in law was the new owner, and sole bidder, of the station. Even last week the only openly anti-AKP station was sold to another pro-AKP conglomerate. The owner claims if he hadn't sold it the company would have been seized by the government. These actions I feel are more concerning than some women wearing headscarfs.

No public universities are being opened, and there are only 400,000 openings a year for new university students, although thousands more pass the exam. The response from the AK party minister of education? Less people should take the test.

Laura's addition of why AKP is popular due to providing social services to the poor is true, but the worst kept secret is also the fact that right before elections they deliver free food and coal to rural families, not under the name of a municipality, but under from the AK party.

The problem isn't necessarily that they want Islam more in public life, the problem is they refuse to check the more extreme elements from their side of the political spectrum. They don't want to simply end the secular establishment of the courts and the military, they want to replace it with their own control of it.

Oh yes, and Roc needs to bone up on his Ottoman and middle eastern history. A lot.

Wow. I was really impressed with the maturity of all the respondents. In America, this would be a shouting match even if religion wasn't tied up in it.

A killer piece of journalism. Let's hope the government does indeed keep to their word.

It was very interesting to hear opinions from both sides. It was really nice to see that the women were not forcing their opinions about head scarfs on the others. They were really civil.

It seems like the AK party passed a Law in 2008 to allow Head scarfs to be worn in Universities because some women really want to wear it because of their beliefs and not for fundamentalist reasons.

It was also really nice to see a video that got to talk to the day-to-day Turkish people. I'm really looking forward to visiting Istanbul in the fall for the very first time. It looks beautiful and the people seem very friendly.

I believe that as it stands, there is no problem. No one is being forced to do something they do not wish to do nor are they being stripped of any right. If anything, the Islamic women who would choose to wear the scarf are being oppressed by the scarf bans that remain.

Wow...I am speechless

Interesting how both sides feel that they are being forced to take on the beliefs of the other's group.

i found this both informative & engaging - nicely cut together aswell. Thanks.