The hijab, or headscarf, is more of a class issue than a gender issue. This was was what Ipek Ilkkaracan, an Istanbul-based feminist and founder of Women for Women’s Rights, a Turkish women’s organisation, told us on a recent visit to Turkey. Her observation reflects the new political significance that is now attached to the issue of hijab in that country.

Turkey, incidentally, is probably the only Muslim country where the wearing of the hijab in public buildings is illegal. It was banned in 1923 as a part of many other social reforms and was almost ignored as an issue until 1980. At that point, women in urban centres did not wear it while those in rural areas did. However, the head-covering even rural women wore was in the Turkish style — just a loose piece of cloth over the head which did not quite cover the hair.

Over the years, the issue of the headscarf slowly became more sensitive, even as the practice of wearing it got more widespread, with even urban women opting to wear it. The type of scarf also changed. It became more in the style favoured by Malaysian women, which is tied down and kept firmly in place, as Professor Senesen, an economist at the Istanbul University, explained.

But why did headscarves in Turkey become such an important political issue. Istanbul’s feminists have an explanation. The seventies saw a civil war-like situation between Turkey’s Left and Right factions. The situation was brought under some control after the 1980 military coup. Democracy was restored after three years. In the mid-1980s, Islamist parties began gaining popularity, partly as a reaction to the strong communist movement in Turkey. The military decided to support the Islamists, given its instinctive dislike for communism — for the Turkish military the USSR/Russia has always been a traditional enemy. Influenced by Cold War sentiments, the US too put its weight behind the Islamist/ right-wing parties against the left. Suddenly there was great talk of ‘spiritual values’, and these values were by no means religion-neutral.

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