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Abstract
The headscarf ban at universities and public offices in Turkey caused many debates over women's rights and freedoms. Civil society organizations, which are known as agents of democratization, have been an important part of these debates. Drawing on the literature on the relationship between civil society, democracy, and Islam, this article investigates how Islamic, Kemalist secular, and non-Kemalist secular organizations support their stance towards the headscarf ban and react to critical developments regarding the ban. The discourse of the organizations is analysed using their press releases and in-depth interviews with the presidents of the organizations. By declaring the headscarf as anti-secular, anti-modern, and oppressive, Kemalist secular organizations reproduce official state ideology. The various ways in which Islamic organizations frame their stance on the headscarf issue on the other hand suggest that Islamic organizations could be just as democratic as many other secular movements. Furthermore, the fact that non-Kemalist secular organizations are critical of the headscarf ban makes them much closer to Islamic organizations than Kemalist secular organizations.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Christopher Einolf, Jennifer Silva, Krishan Kumar, and Ekrem Karakoc for their critical and useful comments on earlier drafts of the paper.
Notes on contributor
Sema Akboga received her MA and PhD degrees in sociology from the University of Virginia. She wrote her dissertation on civil society organizations in Turkey. She currently works on different aspects of democracy in Turkey.
Notes
1. Ozdalga, The Veiling Issue.
2. The Constitutional Court checks the constitutionality of laws. The representatives of the Republican People's Party applied to the Constitutional Court for the annulment of the constitutional change JDP and NMP wanted to make to remove the ban.
3. The six ideas of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, are referred to as Kemalism.
4. See, for instance, Aksoy, Basortusu-Turban.
5. Ahmed, Women and Gender, 152.
6. Gurbuz, “Over the Bodies,” 232.
7. WP was categorized as an Islamist party as it referred to Islamic norms and values, and criticized secularism in its political discourse.
8. Aksoy, Basortusu-Turban, 200.
9. Gunes-Ayata, “The Politics.” The Higher Education Council was founded with the 1982 Constitution and centrally plans and supervises higher education.
10. National Security was founded after the 1960 military coup to establish military control over civilian politics.
11. Saktanber and Corbacioglu, “Veiling and Headscarf,” 515.
12. Turam, “Turkish Women,” 479.
13. Ibid., 492.
14. Arat, Rethinking Islam, 28.
15. Seggie and Austin found that the students who wear the headscarf feel that they are not free and desirable citizens and their citizenship identity is politicized.
16. Seggie and Austin, “Impact of the Headscarf.”
17. Cindoglu and Zencirci. “The Headscarf in Turkey,” 799–800.
18. Skocpol, Diminished Democracy; Putnam, “Bowling Alone”; Cohen and Arato, Civil Society; Fine, “Civil Society Theory.”
19. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America.
20. Putnam, Bowling Alone.
21. Diamond, “Rethinking Civil Society,” 7.
22. Edwards and Foley, “Civil Society,” 10.
23. Goodhart, “Civil Society,” 6.
24. Edwards and Foley, “Civil Society,” 6.
25. Warren, Democracy and Association, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81.
26. Diamond, “Rethinking Civil Society,” 8–9.
27. Alexander, The Civil Sphere, 31.
28. Ibid., 43.
29. Kymlicka, “Ethnic Associations,” 177.
30. Rawls, Theory of Justice, 471–2.
31. Kopecky and Mudde, “Rethinking Civil Society,” 11.
32. Alagappa, “Civil Society,” 46.
33. Aspinall, “Indonesia,” 62.
34. Berman, “Civil Society and Political Institutionalization,” 35–6.
35. Chambers and Kopstein, “Bad Civil Society”; Chambers, “A Critical Theory”; Berman, “Civil Society and Political Institutionalization.”
36. Kamrava and Mora, “Civil Society and Democratization,” 328.
37. Chambers, “A Critical Theory,” 101.
38. Kopecky and Mudde, “Rethinking Civil Society,” 3.
39. Berman, “Civil Society and the Collapse of Weimar Republic,” 402.
40. Jensen and Miszlivetz, “The Second Renaissance,” 142.
41. Chandhoke, “The ‘Civil,’” 258.
42. Foley, Edwards, and Diani, “Social Capital Reconsidered,” 272.
43. Chandhoke, “The ‘Civil,’” 253.
44. Ibrahim, “Civil Society.”
45. See, for instance, Almond and Verba, The Civic Culture; Putnam, Bowling Alone.
46. Sajoo, “Introduction,” 6–7.
47. See, for instance, Gellner, Conditions of Liberty.
48. See, for instance, Abootalebi, Islam and Democracy; Esposito and Piscatori, “Democratization and Islam”; Kazemi, “Perspectives on Islam.”
49. Turam, “Between Islam and the State.”
50. White, “Civic Culture,” 144.
51. Gellner, Conditions of Liberty, 29.
52. Zubaida, “Community and Democracy,” 239.
53. Kedourie, Democracy and Arab Political Culture, 5–6.
54. Kamali, Multiple Modernities.
55. Ibrahim, “Civil Society,” 52.
56. Sajoo, “Introduction,” 13.
57. Ozdalga, “Civil Society,” 83.
58. Cavatorta, “Civil Society, Islamism,” 204, 205.
59. Ibrahim, “Civil Society,” 52.
60. Icduygu, Meydanoglu, and Sert, Turkiye'de Sivil Toplum.
61. Kaplan, Pedagogical State, 76.
62. Ibid., 45.
63. Seggie, Religion and the State, 34.
64. Since the graduates of these schools were conceived to be the supporters of the Islamic movement, the state prevented them from studying other subjects, which would potentially strengthen the Islamic political parties.
65. I used several different channels to reach CYDD's president for an interview during the summer of 2009 – all to no avail.
66. Glaser and Strauss, The Discovery of Grounded Theory.
67. Interview with the president of ADD's district branch, 19 April 2009.
68. http://www.cydd.org.tr (accessed 25 June 2008).
69. Interview with the president of CKD, 22 July 2009.
70. Press release, Ozgur-Der's archives.
71. Interview with the president of Ozgur-Der, 17 February 2009.
72. He refers to political regime by system. Different actors, which were previously excluded by the republican elites, began to play active roles in political life after 1980. He defines this change as a transformation.
73. Interview with the president of Mazlum-Der, 17 May 2009.
74. Interview with the president of ADD's district branch, 19 April 2009.
75. Interview with the president of CKD, 22 July 2009.
77. Interview with the president of CKD, 22 July 2009.
78. Interview with the president of ADD's district branch, 19 April 2009.
79. Akbulut, “Banning Headscarves,” 85.
80. Ozdalga, The Veiling Issue, 35.
81. http://www.add.org.tr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1379&Itemid=158 (accessed 20 March 2009).
83. http://www.cydd.org.tr (accessed 25 June 2008).
84. Ibid.
85. http://www.cydd.org.tr (accessed 25 June 2008).
86. http://www.akder.org/?p=public_statements&view=detail&cid=93&cnnm=1296&lang=tr&m=78c5217caf83e727802942d05c25398e (accessed 29 April 2009).
87. Press release, Ak-Der's archives.
88. Press release, Ozgur-Der's archives.
89. Interview with the president of Ozgur-Der, 17 February 2009.
90. Press release, Ozgur-Der's archives.
91. http://www.mazlumder.org/haber_detay.asp?haberID=530 (accessed 25 October 2009).
92. Gurbuz, “Over the Bodies,” 234.
93. Arat-Koc, “Coming to Terms.”
94. Saktanber and Corbacioglu, “Veiling and Headscarf,” 532.
95. http://www.add.org.tr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1379&Itemid=158 (accessed 20 March 2009).
96. http://www.add.org.tr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1374&Itemid =158 (accessed 22 October 2009).
97. Interview with the president of ADD's district branch, 19 April 2009.
98. Interview with the president of CKD, 22 July 2009.
99. Interview with the president of IHD, 20 July 2009.
100. Ibid.
101. Press release, Ozgur-Der's archives.
102. Press release, Ak-Der's archives.
103. Ibid.
104. Barras, “A Rights-Based Discourse,” 1242.
105. Ibid., 1247.
106. Kuru, Secularism and State Policies.
107. Press release, Ak-Der's archives.
108. Press release, Ozgur-Der's archives.
109. http://www.add.org.tr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1374&Itemid=158 (accessed 22 October 2009).
110. According to the election system in Turkey, JDP got the majority of the seats in the parliament.
113. http://www.akder.org/?p=public_statements&view=detail&cid=93&cnnm=1391&lang=r&m=78c5217caf83e727802942d05c25398e (accessed 26 March 2009).
114. The constitution contains an article that allows the Constitutional Court to investigate and check all proposals for amending the constitution only in terms of its form.
115. Press release, Ozgur-Der's archives.
116. http://www.mazlumder.org/haber_detay.asp?haberID=2628 (accessed 25 March 2009).
117. Independence Tribunals were established following the foundation of the Turkish Republic to try the opponents of the regime.
118. http://www.mazlumder.org/haber_detay.asp?haberID=2605 (accessed 25 March 2009).
119. http://www.mazlumder.org/haber_detay.asp?haberID=2628 (accessed 25 March 2009).
120. Hawthorne, “Is Civil Society the Answer?,” 12.
121. Cavatorta, “Civil Society, Islamism,” 209.
122. Hawthorne, “Is Civil Society?,” 6.