Gül: Should Headscarved Women Stay at Home?

Speaking in Northern Cyprus, where President Gül has been on his first offical visit abroad, he commented on the constitutional draft of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

"Freedoms and modernisation"

Fikret Bila of the "Milliyet" newspaper reports that Gül said the following about allowing the headscarf at university:

"This issue needs to be looked at in terms of freedoms and modernisation. In the past, our daughters sat at home and did not join society. Modernisation means everyone joining social life. Their wish to have a higher education needs to be interpreted and understood that way."

"Going to school is better than staying at home and being excluded from social life. But she says, 'I am a religious person, I also want to cover my head when I go to school.' We have to see this as an individual choice and in terms of freedoms and perceive it as a result of modernity. Of course this is important: it has to be individual."

"Do not reduce draft to one issue" 

According to the "Cyprus" Newspaper, Gül was asked whether the new draft was all about the headscarf. He replied:

"If the constitution is for one sentence, then there is no need to make a new one. It could be changed with one article. The draft should not be reduced to that issue."

Responding to Ertugrul Özkök's column in the "Hürriyet" newspaper yesterday (18 September), which referred to the danger of a religious coup, Gül said, "Turkey cannot be like Malaysia". Özkök had also referred to an interview with sociologist and political scientist Serif Mardin to support the perceived threat from Islamists.

"Turkey's priority democratic and economic reforms" 

According to "Sabah" newspaper, Gül said:

"Those who say that do not know Malaysia. I know Malaysia very well. I have read the interview with Serif Mardin. He is a great historian of Turkey. He laid everything out very clearly, take what he said and read it again. Turkey's first priority is to carry on with fundamental democratic and economic reforms and to complete the accession negotiations with the EU successfully. If a Turkey which has come to such a point still has these fears, then I start to doubt it."

Bila quoted Gül as saying,

"Those who say that are not well-informed. Turkey cannot be Iran or Malaysia.Iran is a totally different structure anyway. They have to know that. That is why Turkey cannot be Iran. It can also not be Malaysia, because there is a very different sociological and cultural structure there."

"In Malaysia, the real problem is not religion but nations, ethnicities. Their clothes are ethnic costumes. That is a different culture. It does not resemble Turkey's sociological and cultural make-up. That is why I do not agree with such worries and predictions."

"There can be no neighbourhood pressure" 

Bila reminded Gül that Serif Mardin had spoken of "neighbourhood pressure" (read peer pressure). Bila said: "[Mardin] says that there may neighbourhood pressure on girls to cover their heads in the future, that women need to be worried. What do you think?"

Gül's answer was as follows:

"There can be no neighbourhood pressure in Turkey. Why should there be? These are people who have been living together for years. Think about it, in the same neighbourhood, in the same place, we have a headscarved girl walking arm-in-arm with a girl who is not covered. They break their sandwiches in half and share them."

"In the same family, you have covered and uncovered girls. We have such a social make-up and we have been living like that for years. That is why there cannot be any neighbourhood pressure." (TK/NZ/AG)

* This article has used information from Milliyet, Sabah and Cyprus newspapers.