Female Turkish MPs break headscarf taboo

France 24 ^ | 31/10/2013 | Catherine Viette

[Olog-hai]

Four female members of Ankara’s Islamic-rooted government attended a parliament session on Thursday wearing headscarves, a first in 14 years in secular Turkey.

The last time a headscarf was seen in Parliament was when Turkish-American MP Merve Kavakci turned up for her swearing-in ceremony in Islamic dress. She was booed out of the house and eventually had her Turkish citizen(ship) revoked.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lifted a decades-old ban on headscarves in the civil service in early October as part of a package of reforms meant to improve democracy and freedoms. …

[cunning_fish]

LOL. These won’t last long as MPs in post-secular Turkey. I guess a woman in a position of power is more an insult to Islam than just uncovered one. It all smells like 1975 Iran there.

[VeniVidiVici]

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lifted a decades-old ban on headscarves in the civil service in early October as part of a package of reforms meant to improve democracy and freedoms. …

LOL! Does the AKP think Turkish citizens are as stupid as Democrats?

[stormhill]

Giant step backwards.

Wonder if this could affect Turkey's EU membership.

[bigheadfred]

meant to improve democracy and freedoms

silly rabbits

[Olog-hai]

Turkey was never at any time going to be allowed into the EU. Not that the EU is anything good, mind you.

[Olog-hai]

Since they voted for the AKP, the AKP must think exactly that.

[stormhill]

Then the Islamists have nothing to lose.
Always thought the prospect of joining was an incentive for good behavior.

[GreyHoundSailor]

That’s the way the EU looked at; the AKP, however, saw the process as an opportunity to neuter the military, and that’s exactly what they’ve done (in addition to silencing journalists and stacking the courts).

[cynwoody]

Zero stands between Prime Minister Erdogan and a black shadow with a backpack
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul, 2009-04-07

[cynwoody]

Not that the EU is anything good, mind you.

Sooner or later, the EU will need to find a cozy conference table to sit around and work out a Final Solution to the Islamic Question, that being the inevitable Europäische way.

[Olog-hai]

People still don’t believe that, and are convinced that they’re turning Islamic over there. The backlash is already in motion.

[Olog-hai]

Depends on what you mean by “good behavior”. Both have been quite the enemy of Israel, although “Europe” for far longer than Turkey.

[Ann Archy]

Turkey is headed for Sharia Law.....bye bye Turkey.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks Olog-hai. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/it-is-not-just-about-headscarf-is-it.aspx?PageID=238&NID=57239&NewsCatID=470 ...there would not be any problem with the use of headscarves in the public as long as it is not imposed on those who prefer stay distant from the Islamic dress code. Even if there are some in Turkey who are at odds with seeing headscarves in public - and there are some - they would be scared to death to even say a single word against it, perhaps just voicing small murmurings. That is the real “change” introduced to Turkey by the AKP government in the past decade. “If you have been intoxicated by arrogance, how can you hear the cry of the one who is not like you? … It is only our struggle to exist that prevents your self-built radical monster from conquering you,” were the astonishing words of CHP MP Şafak Pavey during her speech at Parliament, where the four AKP women MPs with headscarves sat. The real deal with the headscarf is not Islamic lifestyle, but the fact that other lifestyles feel threatened amid the fierce drive by the AKP government for a more conservative society and country. The survival fight of minority “others” is indeed the sole guarantee of strife for the majority “us,” and unless the government realizes this the prospects for political returns appear dim.