the vestiges of a prohibitive mindset regarding the discrimination against pious women.

The headscarf has no positive or negative meaning in and for itself. This is so when someone sees that it is not a defining feature of the credentials sought by institutions in various sectors of public service. This is also so given the fact that hijabi women’s promotion and empowerment in positions of power itself did not automatically resolve Turkey’s many problems other than removing the vestiges of a prohibitive mindset regarding the discrimination against pious women.
This brings us back to the rise of Turkey’s righteous victims. How yesterday’s victims went through a metamorphosis and ended up being oppressors today serves as another cautionary tale for Turkey.

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How Victims Became New Oppressors: The Metamorphosis of a Pious Generation in Turkey
The transformation of yesterday’s victims to today’s oppressors merits closer inspection. A female lawmaker’s account…
abyasun.medium.com
While Erdogan’s party laments the haunting specter of headscarf ban from the past, they easily forget the fact that the biggest victims of today’s still ongoing oppression in Turkey are people who indeed wear a headscarf. Nearly 17,000 women are behind bars simply over the fact that they have different social affiliations than Erdogan’s female followers. And thousands of hijabi women recently went through the most indignant treatment in police custody, being exposed to strip-search and sexual abuses on some occasions, during this same government, which includes covered women in ministerial positions.
The most famous of all AKP officials, Ozlem Zengin (picture right above), embodies the naked example of that political metamorphosis. A victim during the Kavakci era in the late 1990s, she has no compunction for publicly denying the persecution taking place under her watch. The lawmaker nonchalantly remains silent while her hijabi sisters face repression far worse than she personally endured in the 1990s.
After Zengin’s belittling of the human rights campaign to release imprisoned women and babies in Turkey, many came to believe that seeing covered women in positions of power does not mark the dawn of a democratic age many have expected. After all, now headscarf-wearing judges and prosecutors violate the spirit of the law, sending other hijabi or non-hijabi women to jail in politically-motivated trials with little or no evidence at hand. As long as this generation of judges countenances the government’s rape of the justice system, the long-dreamed achievement of headscarf’s liberation in Turkey means little for redeeming the country’s democratic deficits.
This does not necessarily mean that some Kemalists are right in their desire for banishment of veiled women from public service or education. It also should not be read as a vindication of the lingering secular doubts about the democratic maturity of the hijabi women in decision-making mechanisms at both national and local levels.
The headscarf in Turkey “remains an abiding element of culture wars and identity politics” because laicism is ingrained in the founding tenets of the country and a large part of the Kemalist population remain intolerant of Islamic women displaying their headscarves. (Richard Peres)
The gist of this essay, after reflecting on approaches of both sides, is that headscarf is not a marker of good or evil, liberty or suppression, progress or decay. It is only a personal choice. And that choice must be respected, regardless of the shifting cultural currents or political context.
Peres concludes his remarks with a poignant reminder:
I am hopeful that, after Erdogan, repression against covered women will not return because it is so anathema to a free society. Turkey is not France. Transporting French laicism to Turkey was a mistake on the part of Kemalists resulting in conflicts and repression. Even Ataturk’s mother wore a headscarf.

The headscarf has no positive or negative meaning in and for itself. This is so when someone sees that it is not a defining feature of the credentials sought by institutions in various sectors of public service. This is also so given the fact that hijabi women’s promotion and empowerment in positions of power itself did not automatically resolve Turkey’s many problems other than removing the vestiges of a prohibitive mindset regarding the discrimination against pious women.
This brings us back to the rise of Turkey’s righteous victims. How yesterday’s victims went through a metamorphosis and ended up being oppressors today serves as another cautionary tale for Turkey.
How Victims Became New Oppressors: The Metamorphosis of a Pious Generation in Turkey
The transformation of yesterday’s victims to today’s oppressors merits closer inspection. A female lawmaker’s account…
abyasun.medium.com
While Erdogan’s party laments the haunting specter of headscarf ban from the past, they easily forget the fact that the biggest victims of today’s still ongoing oppression in Turkey are people who indeed wear a headscarf. Nearly 17,000 women are behind bars simply over the fact that they have different social affiliations than Erdogan’s female followers. And thousands of hijabi women recently went through the most indignant treatment in police custody, being exposed to strip-search and sexual abuses on some occasions, during this same government, which includes covered women in ministerial positions.
The most famous of all AKP officials, Ozlem Zengin (picture right above), embodies the naked example of that political metamorphosis. A victim during the Kavakci era in the late 1990s, she has no compunction for publicly denying the persecution taking place under her watch. The lawmaker nonchalantly remains silent while her hijabi sisters face repression far worse than she personally endured in the 1990s.
After Zengin’s belittling of the human rights campaign to release imprisoned women and babies in Turkey, many came to believe that seeing covered women in positions of power does not mark the dawn of a democratic age many have expected. After all, now headscarf-wearing judges and prosecutors violate the spirit of the law, sending other hijabi or non-hijabi women to jail in politically-motivated trials with little or no evidence at hand. As long as this generation of judges countenances the government’s rape of the justice system, the long-dreamed achievement of headscarf’s liberation in Turkey means little for redeeming the country’s democratic deficits.