Turkish women wearing the hijab

Blue Mosque in Istanbul at sunset © Ricky Yates
Blue Mosque in Istanbul at sunset © Ricky Yates

Over the past fifteen or so years, there has been a marked increase in the number of women from Muslim families living Western societies, who have taken to wearing the hijab or headscarf. This trend, which I have previously observed when living in the UK, was very evident on the streets of Turkey during my recent visit. As I remarked at the end of my last post, this is a very obvious outward sign of the increasing Islamization of the supposedly secular state of Turkey. It is also the source of much tension and controversy within the country.

The usual explanation offered as to why most Islamic teachers insist that Muslim women should wear the hijab, is that the Koran states that women should ‘dress modestly’. This raises a number of questions. Who decides what is or isn’t modest? Why is wearing a headscarf that covers a woman’s hair and neck deemed to be modest? Why is it deemed immodest for a Muslim woman to show her hair in public?

I observed some Turkish women who wore the hijab with a loose fitting full-length coat that revealed no obvious body shape and no bare skin except the hands and face. One could reasonably argue that they were dressed modestly. But if a woman dressed in this manner was accompanied by a man, presumably their husband, then almost without exception, that man was dressed in the latest Western fashion, usually jeans and a designer shirt! A very clear case of ‘one rule for men and a completely different rule for women’. And what so many Muslim men quietly forget is that the Koran calls for women and men to dress modestly.

However, the vast majority of women wearing the hijab combine it with outfits that are predominantly the epitome of Western women’s fashion. Some will wear a shawl that goes around their shoulders and hangs down as far as their waist, thus covering the shape of their breasts. Other wear a hijab which is itself long enough to cover the upper part of their torso. But many Turkish women I observed, dressed no differently than their counterparts on the streets of Prague or London, other than wearing a headscarf covering their hair and neck.

The ultimate example I saw was a woman walking up and across the snow-white hillside and paddling in the shallow pools of warm spring water at Pamukkale. She was duly wearing her hijab. But the rest of her outfit consisted of a short-sleeved tight fitting tee-shirt, with silvery decoration on the front that very much emphasised her breasts, together with skin-tight low waisted jeans which revealed the top half of her G-string when she bent over! What on earth was the point of her wearing a hijab? The rest of her outfit was in total contradiction to what the hijab is supposedly meant to express.

I am awfully aware that I am a male Christian minister making these observations and comments. However, I was reassured in my observations and conclusions by reading the blog of a woman, now living in Prague, who previously lived in Turkey for a year. Sezin Koehler makes very similar remarks in her blog post entitled ‘Turkish Delight Vol. 11 – Stilettos and headscarves’. Sezin clearly saw many more extreme examples than I did such as bare midriffs, miniskirts and stiletto-healed boots combined with a hijab. She too points out the utter contradiction of women wearing such outfits.

As part of his efforts to modernise Turkey and bring it, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the twentieth century, Ataturk banned the wearing of headgear by both men and women, in all government buildings which, amongst other places, includes universities. He himself, adopted western dress as an example for Turkish citizens to follow. The current Turkish government recently tried to introduce a change in the law to allow women to wear the hijab in universities. This was passed in parliament but thrown out by the constitutional court because it was deemed incompatible with Ataturk’s secular constitution.

Part of me has great reservations about laws that seek to prevent anyone from wearing something that is an expression of their faith. If you say to Muslim women that they cannot wear a hijab whilst attending classes in schools or universities, then the corollary is that Christian women should be prevented from wearing a cross in the same places. So at one level, I would want to defend a woman’s right to wear the hijab if she genuinely and personally wants to do so because she believes it to be and expression of her faith. But as I have already pointed out, there is frequently a considerable contradiction and hypocrisy on the part of many women who do so. However, it is equally true that many Western women who wear a cross, often wear it more as a fashion accessory rather than as an expression of personal faith.

What I really object to is the other reasoning given by Islamic teachers (always male!) as to why women should wear the hijab. It is to stop men looking at women as sex objects and to allay male lust because; male lust is the fault and responsibility of women! When objecting to this perverse reasoning, for once, my being a male is to my advantage.

This perverse reasoning is not confined solely to male Islamic teachers. It is used by some defence lawyers and their male clients in mitigation for the offence of rape or the attempted rape of a woman. The poor female victim is accused of being at least partly responsible for the crime committed against her because she was wearing a short skirt or a top that showed too much cleavage.

As a male, I hope that I can look at a woman who is dressed attractively and be able to say, “She looks nice”, without any need to molest her in any manner. To be able to appreciate her God given beauty rather blame her for leading me astray. To recognise women as complimentary and equal to men, rather than seeking to subjugate them. To not see women as purely a temptation to sin. For however much certain Islamic teachers may protest otherwise, the day to day practice of Islam does effectively turn women into second-class citizens and insisting that women must wear the hijab is in many ways indicative of that.

However, before being too critical about how some people dress in the Islamic world, it should be said that we in the West can often also be far too concerned about the way we and other people look. Why is it that many politicians now use image consultants? I am always reminded of the words of God to Samuel the prophet as recorded in the Old Testament. “The Lord does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”. 1 Samuel 16 v7

What matter most is not our outward dress or appearance but our inner motives and attitudes.

Blue Mosque in Istanbul through fountain © Ricky Yates
Blue Mosque in Istanbul through fountain © Ricky Yates

The Islamization of Turkey

Aya Sophia in Istanbul © Ricky Yates. Originally built as a Church, it was converted to a mosque with the addition of minarets after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. In 1935 under the government of Ataturk, it was turned into a museum and some of the Christian mosiacs and frescoes uncovered and restored.
Aya Sophia in Istanbul © Ricky Yates. Originally built as a Church, it was converted to a mosque with the addition of minarets, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. In 1935, under the government of Ataturk, it was turned into a museum and some of the original Christian mosiacs and frescoes uncovered and restored.

Before I continue describing and illustrating our journey back to Prague from Cappadocia in central Turkey, via Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, Croatia again, Slovenia, Italy and Austria, I want to post a more reflective piece about Turkey and the tensions and issues that it currently faces. In many respects these are a microcosm of what increasingly divides the West, with its culture and values that are Christian in origin though becoming increasingly secular, from those countries in the Middle East, the Gulf, other parts of Asia and North Africa, where Islam is the majority religion which is increasingly being expressed and practiced in a far more extreme and militant fashion.

The Republic of Turkey came into being from the crumbling remains of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. The Ottoman Empire, being one of the so-called Central Powers of Germany, Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria, was on the losing side in WW1 and certain territorial promises were made to nations that supported the victorious allies as to those parts of the ‘sick man of Europe’ they might gain when it came to dividing up the spoils in 1918. Most notably, Greece had visions of re-establishing itself right around the Aegean Sea coast, not least because there was still a large Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian population in the western part of what is now Turkey.

What the victorious allies, and Greece in particular, had not reckoned with was an officer in the defeated Ottoman army called Mustafa Kemel, He formed and led a national army of resistance to defend the lands where the Turks were in a majority and to thwart the allies attempts to partition the country. His forces successfully drove back and defeated the Greek army who at one time had come to within 80 km of Ankara. Eventually in July 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed which brought and end to the Greek – Turkish War and later that year, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed with Mustafa Kemel as its first president.

Mustafa Kemel took the surname Ataturk, the name by which he is far better known, which literally means ‘Father Turk’. This was one of his many reforms that he introduced. Until that time, no Turk had a surname – Ataturk made everybody have one, including himself!

Ataturk set about turning Turkey into a modern twentieth century nation state. He analysed the institutions and constitutions of France, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland and adapted and adopted different parts as best fitted the new Turkish state. One of his many reforms was introducing a new Turkish alphabet based on Latin letters rather than Arabic script to help improve literacy. He sought to raise the status of women by, amongst other things, granting them full political rights, well ahead of many European countries.

His greatest reform was to make Turkey a secular state. He established a code of civil law and abolished religious courts. He set up a system of state education with a curriculum controlled by the civil Ministry of Education, not by Islamic teachers. He did not suppress Islam – in fact he actively encouraged the translation of the Koran into Turkish, using the newly adopted Latin alphabet. But he wanted his people to be able to read the Islamic scriptures for themselves so they might understand better what Islam actually taught.

Ataturk died in November 1938 and is rightly revered as the father of the nation. He is buried in a massive mausoleum in Ankara and there are statues of him in most Turkish towns and cities. There is no question that Turkey would not be the nation it now is but for Ataturk. And yet many people now feel that his legacy is slowly being undermined.

The rise of militant or fundamentalist Islam in recent years elsewhere in the Islamic world has begun to impinge on Turkey. Ataturk always encouraged Turkey to look west to Europe and to adopt western dress and cultural patterns. The country is a member of NATO and has been in negotiations to join the EU for several years. Yet all of this is being challenged by Islamists who want the country to look east, adopt their version of Islamic culture and values and introduce Sharia law.

For the past seven years, the country has been ruled by the AKP political party whose leaders were once part of a now illegal religious party. Whilst they say they will uphold Ataturk’s principles and constitution, many believe their real agenda is an Islamist one. The governing party draws its support from the rural regions of Anatolia; the secular opposition from the middle classes of the big cities, particularly Istanbul and Izmir.

The outward expression of these two divergent cultural and political outlooks is most clearly seen in the area of female clothing and fashion, in particular the wearing of the hijab or headscarf. To this ‘political issue’, as a young Turkish couple described it to me, I shall return in my next post.