Hayrunisa Gul to "modernzie" her head scarf

[swallow]

Turkish first lady in waiting seeks political redesign

[skdadl]

This situation is always interesting in Turkey because it is so different from the way that Westerners conceive of the problem.

The really oppressive (and sometimes dangerous) elites in Turkey are the "secularists," meaning the nationalist heirs to Ataturk. The democratically elected political leadership are moderate and modernizing Islamic politicians, very pro-Europe, rather more trustworthy, I think, than the secularist army and sometimes the old-fashioned courts. And Turkey's liberal, often secular, intellectual leaders have spoken out against too-easy Western assumptions about who is progressive in the country.

I hate to see Western meddling in Turkey, since the people themselves seem to be moving slowly but surely towards a better kind of democracy.

[swallow]

Yeah, I'd agree with that skdadl....

What I find fascinating is that the political struggles are displaced onto the terrain of women's bodies/dress/hair/etc.

Mr Gul is not acceptable to the secularist elites. What does he have to do to become more acceptable? Change something about himself? No. His wife has to change how she dresses. So she becomes jsut an ornament on his arm, and the battles are fought with women as objects, just as they were in (say) 19th C Egypt.

And the way Turkey displays "its women" is a major factor in whether the EU accepts it. I'm not sure how much that argument is about the status of women, and how much it is about symbols.

[lagatta]

What skdadl says is correct, however there are also secularists who are very progressive indeed, and some are on the far left.

Lots of Turkish people in the neighbourhood where I'm staying. Quite a range of dress among the women; most men, except a very few, are dressed just like Dutchmen, though few seem to wear shorts.

I do remain concerned about the resurgence of religious world views, though at this point I'm far more concerned about Poland than about Turkey, at least in terms of secularism. There remain serious democratic deficits in the country, though it is not alone in elements of national oppression (Kurds). The situation of Roma (gypsies) in many Central European countries, including the nice democratic Czech Republic, is as shameful as the condition of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.