“Sexual Discrimination Will Not End Before Islam’s Perception Changed”

Speaking at the “Religion and Democracy Panel” organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Hidayet Tuksal, representative for the Capitol City Women Platform, said, “The women with headscarves have been left by their party, their husbands and their neighborhoods where they live. This has been made only the problem of the women with headscarves. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) has not taken any responsibility. We will see if the People’s Republican Party (CHP) will take any.”

Speaking at the session allocated to the “Religions going through transformation” on November 29, Tuksal says the reform in Islam has been a century-long issue, these discussions have come up in Muslim circles usually because of the economic and political defeats, and this has been the source of the existing tension.

Tuksal: Theologian Islam does not believe in reform

Pointing out that people like Abdullah Cevdet had to endure exclusion for making reform calls in the past, Tuksal says those well-known theologians who participated in the discussion series "Can there be reform in Islam?" of the newspaper Milliyet eventually concurred that there was no need for reform in Islam and Ali Bardakoğlu, the head of the Director of Religious Affairs, had said during the discussions that “There cannot be reform in religion, but only in piety.”

According to Tuksal, all the solutions up until today have been practical ways to go around some problems. For example, the problem of interest was solved by a practice that established a different sort of interest mentality.

“It is a contradiction that those without headscarves do not defend the rights of those with headscarves”

Tuksal finds Fethullah Gülen’s (an important and well-respected religious figure by an important portion of the devoted Muslims in Turkey) opinion as an important step in the right direction by arguing that asking women to be patient when faced with violence is a form of cruelty. However, she says although this message puts the women at ease and disconcerts the men it does not solve the problem. “Generally the women are emasculated all around the world. Moreover, there is an Islamic verse that describes man as the head of family who can beat his wife.”

Tuksal describes the reluctance of the women without headscarves to defend the rights of the women with headscarves because they fear they may be forced to wearing headscarves as a “contradiction”. “To end the social sexual discrimination, the religious perception needs to be improved. Covering oneself for religious reasons has become hair fetishism.” (EÖ/ TK/TB)