The Politics of What You Wear on Your Head

Abstract

For more than a century Turkish politics has been preoccupied with numerous debates focusing on the headwear of both men and women. As an indicator of the religious, ethnic and cultural affinities of the people who use or refrain from utilizing a particular sort of headwear, this issue has gained enormous political importance during particular time periods. This article argues that the overemphasis on certain types of headwear, namely the fez, top hat and headscarf, have figured at particular times as state policy, although their longevity as an issue was relative. Instead, the significance of the headwear continues its importance through metamorphosing the debate to another style of headwear. Despite arguments suggesting that women's attire has been at the core of Turkish modernization since the assertion of modern identities, which usually have been defined over women's issues, this article argues that it has been very important what both men and women wear on their head since modern dichotomies have classified both men's and women's identities, recognition and exclusion over their headwear. The state, as the modernizing actor of the masses, has stressed people's attire and in particular their headwear, as an ideological instrument.

Keywords::

• Clothing
• fez
• hat law
• headscarf
• secularism
• state ideology
• Turkish modernization
• veiling

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Prof. Ergun Özbudun for his comments on earlier drafts of this article. Needless to say, the responsibility for the views presented here are solely mine.

Notes

¹ M. Foucault (1969–1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge & the Discourse on Language, A. M. Sheridan Smith (trans) (London: Tavistock Publications).

² Ay¸e Kadıoğlu first utilized the concept of ‘Cosmetic Westernization’ to indicate the imitative character of the Ottoman and Turkish modernization; see A. Kadioglu (1996) The Paradox of Turkish Nationalism and the Construction of Official Identity, Middle Eastern Studies, 32(2), pp. 177–194.

³ A. Hollander (1978) Seeing Through Clothes (New York: The Viking Press); M. Barnard (2008) Fashion as Communication (London: Routledge); R. Barthes (1967–1985) The Fashion System, trans. W. Matthew & R. Howard (London: Cape).

⁴ A. Lurie (1992) The Language of Clothes (London: Bloomsbury).

⁵ There is an extensive literature on the identifying usage of clothing: See, for instance, W. Parkins (2002) Fashioning the Body Politic: Dress, Gender and Citizenship (Oxford: Berg); A. Lurie (1992) The Language of Clothes (London: Bloomsbury); A. Hollander (1978) Seeing through Clothes (New York: The Viking Press); R. P. Rubinstein (2001) Dressing Codes: The Meaning and Messages in American Culture (Boulder, CO: Westview Press); S. B. Kaiser (1997) The Social Psychology of Clothing: Symbolic Appearances in Context (2nd edn. revised) (New York: Fairchild); F. Davis (1994) Fashion, Culture and Identity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press); M. Barnard (2002) Fashion as Communication (London: Routledge); G. Lipovetsky (1994) The Empire of the Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

⁶Barthes, The Fashion System, p. 266.

⁷ J. Allman (2004) Fashioning Africa: Power and the Politics of Dress, pp. 1–12 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).

⁸ K. Burbach (2010) Schwarz Rot Gold is The New Black. The Production of Patriotism in the Collections of the German Fashion Designer Eva Gronbach. Available at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/kburbachpaper.pdf; accessed February 20, 2013.

⁹Lipovetsky, The Empire of Fashion.

¹⁰ R. Ross (2008) Clothing: A Global History (Cambridge: Polity); D. Crane (2000) Fashion and its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

¹¹Allman, Fashioning Africa; and U. Lehmann (2002) Trigersprung: Fashion and Modernity (Cambridge: MIT Press).

¹²Allman, Fashioning Africa, pp. 1–5.

¹³ E. Tarlo (1996) Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

¹⁴ D. Williams (2008) Tunisia Veil Case Threatens ‘Odious Rag’ Struggle. Available at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid = newsarchive&; accessed January 3, 2013.

¹⁵D. Quataert (2000–2005) The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922 (New York: Cambridge University Press); C. Akta¸ (1989) Tanzimattan Günümüze Kılık, Kıyafet ve İktidar [Clothing, Apparel and Power from Tanzimat to Nowadays] vol. 1 (İstanbul: Nehir Yayınları).

¹⁶ R. H. Wadleigh (1879) Head Gear: Antique and Modern (Boston: Coleman & Maxwell Stationaries and Printers).

¹⁷Crane, Fashion and its Social Agendas.

¹⁸ A. Çınar (2005) Modernity, Islam and Secularism in Turkey: Bodies, Places and Time, p. 4 (London: University of Minnesota Press).

¹⁹ C. Findley. (2008) The Tanzimat, in R. Kasaba (ed.) Turkey in the Modern World: Cambridge History of Turkey Series Vol. 4, pp. 38–61 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

²⁰ N. Berkes (1998) The Development of Secularism in Turkey, p. 123 (London: Hurst & Co); S. J. Shaw & E. K. Shaw (1977) History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, p. 49; vol. II (New York: Cambridge University Press).

²¹ O. Koloğlu (1978) İslam'da Ba¸lık [Headwear in Islam], pp. 40–44 (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi).

²² Ibid, pp. 41–51.

²³ Ibid, p. 32, 40.

²⁴K. H. Karpat (1994–2002) Osmanlı Modernle¸mesi: Toplum, Kuramsal Deği¸im ve Nüfus [Ottoman Modernization: Society, Theoretical Transformation and Population], p. 759 (Ankara: İmge Kitabevi).

²⁵Berkes, The Development of Secularism, p. 124.

²⁶ H. Rae (2002) State Identities and the Homogenization of Peoples (New York: Cambridge University Press).

²⁷ A. B. Anderson (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (New York: Verso).

²⁸Berkes, The Development of Secularism, p. 90.

²⁹ Ibid, p. 125.

³⁰Koloğlu, İslam'da Ba¸lık, p. 34.

³¹Koloğlu, İslam'da Ba¸lık, pp. 50–54.

³² Ibid, p. 64.

³³Berkes, The Development of Secularism, p. 362.

³⁴ Reactionism (irticacılık) in a Turkish context refers to a desire for turning back to a religiously rooted time vis-à-vis the modern one in a dichotomic perspective.

³⁵ F. Georgeon (2006) Osmanlı Türk Modernle¸mesi 1900–1930, p. 152; A. Berktay (trans) (İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları).

³⁶Koloğlu, İslam'da Ba¸lık, p. 58.

³⁷ M. K. Atatürk (1995) Nutuk, p. 871 (İstanbul: ݸ Bankası Yayınları).

³⁸ E. Özbudun (1981) The Nature of the Kemalist Regime In: A. Kazancıgil and E. Özbudun (eds) Atatürk: Founder of a Modern State, pp. 79–102 (London: C. Hurst).

³⁹ S. Bozdoğan & R. Kasaba (1997) Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey (Seattle: University of Washington Press); A. Çınar, Çınar, Alev (2005) Modernity, Islam and Secularism; N. Göle (1996) The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan).

⁴⁰Rae, State Identities and the Homogenisation of Peoples, p. 23.

⁴¹ T. Feyzioğlu (1995) Türk İnkılabının Temel İlkesi: Laiklik Atatürk Yolu, pp. 207–208 (Ankara: Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu Atatürk Ara¸tırma Merkezi Yayınları).

⁴² Ş. Mardin (2011) Türkiye, İslam ve Sekülarizm (İstanbul: İleti¸im).

⁴³ A. Yumul (2010) Fashioning the Turkish Body Politic, in: C. Kerslake, K. Öktem, P. Robins (eds) Turkey's Engagement with Modernity, Conflict and Change in the Twentieth Century, p. 354 (Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke).

⁴⁴Çınar, Modernity, Islam and Secularism, p. 69.

⁴⁵ Nevertheless, the political strategy pursued while introducing the top hat was strengthened by national and religious sources as well. For instance, Aydemir notes that while introducing the top hat in Kastamonu, Atatürk denounced the fez for being a Greek headwear and he also took support from the mufti in order to legitimize the top hat more easily. Thus, the effort to de-nationalize the fez, which was perceived as an indicator of the Ottoman identity, went parallel with the effort to legitimize the top hat in the eyes of more traditional and Muslim masses. See: ⁴⁵ Ş. S. Aydemir (1963–1998) Tek Adam: Mustafa Kemal, vol. III, pp. 244–247 (İstanbul: Remzi Kitabevi).

⁴⁶Çınar, Modernity, Islam and Secularism, p. 68; M. Yeğenoğlu (1998) Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist Reading of Orientalism, p. 133 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press).

⁴⁷ H. Topuz (2002) Gazi ve Fikriye, pp. 141–142 (İstanbul: Remzi Kitabevi).

⁴⁸ N. Uğurlu (1998) İsmet İnönü'nün Hatıraları, p. 81 (Ankara: Yenigün Haber Ajansı).

⁴⁹Akta¸, Kılık, Kıyafet ve İktidar, p. 151.

⁵⁰ Atatürk, Nutuk, p. 870.

⁵¹ TBMM Records, November 23, 1925.

⁵² Atatürk, Nutuk, p. 871.

⁵³ N. Nadi (1951) Cumhuriyet, March 21, 1951.

⁵⁴ B. Lewis (1961) The Emergence of Modern Turkey, p. 266 (London: Oxford University Press).

⁵⁵ For further details see İ. Atıf Hodja (2010) Frenk Mukallitliği ve Şapka; Babaeski Mufti and Nalıncı Hasan, in Azak, Islam and Secularism in Turkey; Chief Mufti of Egypt, in Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey; ‘Şalcı Bacı’ in Arzık, E¸ Ki¸iler Zinciri; and Akta¸, Tanzimattan Günümüze.

⁵⁶ İ. Atıf Hodja (2010) Frenk Mukallitliği ve Şapka, p. 11 (İstanbul: Milli Gazete Yayınları).

⁵⁷ Previously, Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır served as a deputy and Minister in Damat Ferit Pasha's Government; Atatürk assigned him to translate the Quran into Turkish. He was one of the religious intellectuals of the Ottoman State as well as of the Turkish Republic. His silent protest of the top hat in that regard was meaningful.

⁵⁸Akta¸, Kılık, Kıyafet ve İktidar I, pp. 1–48.

⁵⁹ Said Nursi was a well-known theologian and author of Risale-i Nur Collection, a long commentary on the Quran; he also inspired an influential religious mevement, the Nurculuk.

⁶⁰ N. Ilıcak (2008) Nevzat Tandoğan'dan Baykal'a, Sabah, December 4, 2008; and H. Babaoğlu, (2012) Tandoğan Meydanı'nın Adı Deği¸meli, Sabah, March 30, 2012.

⁶¹ U. Azak (2010) Islam and Secularism in Turkey: Kemalism, Religion and the Nation State, p. 37 (New York: I. B. Tauris).

⁶² T. Z. Tunaya (2003) İslamcılık Akımı, pp. 176–182 (İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniv. Yay.); H. Chebabi (2004) Dress Codes for Men in Turkey and Iran, in T. Atabaki & E. J. Zürcher (eds) Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernization Under Atatürk and Reza Shah, p. 216 (London: I.B. Tauris).

⁶³ P. Baker (1986) The Fez in Turkey: A Symbol of Modernization?, Costume 20(1) p. 82; Chebabi (2004) Dress Codes for Men, p. 217.

⁶⁴ Even some pro-religious laws were enacted in that period, such as establishment of the Theology Faculty and the creation of Prayer Leaders and Preachers Schools.

⁶⁵ F. Ahmad and B. Turgay Ahmad (1976) Türkiye'de Çok Partili Politikanın Açıklamalı Kronolojisi, 1945–1971 [The Annotated Chronology of Multiparty Politics in Turkey 1945–1971] pp. 41–42 (İstanbul: Bilgi Yayınevi).

⁶⁶ S. Demirel (2012) Ecevit Kasketi Takınca Bana da Fötr Kaldı [Since Ecevit Wore Cap, The Top Hat Was Left to me], Milliyet July 4, 2012. Available at http://siyaset.milliyet.com.tr/ecevit-kasketi-takinca-bana-da-fotr-kaldi/siyaset/siyasetdetay/04.07.2012/1562520/default.htm, accessed January 15, 2013.

⁶⁷ A. MacLeod (1991) Accommodating Protest: Working Women, the New Veiling, and Change in Cairo (New York: Columbia University Press).

⁶⁸ Y. Navaro Yashin (2002) Faces of the State: Secularism and Public Life in Turkey, p. 112 (Oxford: Princeton University Press).

⁶⁹ E. Özdalga (1998) The Veiling Issue: Official Secularism and Popular Islam in Modern Turkey, p. 35 (Richmond, Surrey, UK: Curzon Press).

⁷⁰ Ş. Tekeli (1982) Women in Modern Turkish Society (London: Zed Books); N. Göle (1996) The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan); D. Kandiyoti (1997) Gendering the Modern: On Missing Dimensions in the Study of Turkish Modernity, in: S. Bozdoğan & R. Kasaba (eds) Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey (Seattle: University of Washington Press).

⁷¹ J. B. White (2003) State Feminism, Modernization, and the Turkish Republican Woman, NWSA Journal 15(3) pp. 145–159.

⁷²Akta¸, Tanzimattan Günümüze, p. 183.

⁷³ Ibid, p. 219.

⁷⁴ It is possible to see similar explanations in the conjuncture of the post-1980 military coup and the Turkish Constitutional Court decisions of 1989 and 1991.

⁷⁵ During the RPP government rule, on 8 December 1978 a law openly banning the headscarf for officers was implemented. For further details see: M. Aksoy (2005) Ba¸örtüsü-Türban, Batılıla¸ma-Modernle¸me, Laiklik ve Örtünme, p. 155 (İstanbul: Kitap Yayınevi).

⁷⁶ Ibid, pp. 167–173.

⁷⁷Özdalga, The Veiling Issue, p. 54.

⁷⁸ Ibid, p. 58.

⁷⁹Aksoy, Ba¸örtüsü-Türban, pp. 190–197.

⁸⁰ For further details, see the Leyla Şahin case decision in the European Court of Human Rights, Decision Application no. 44774/98 available at http://archivio.rivistaaic.it/cronache/giurisprudenza_comunitaria/cedu_velo/Sentenza_cedu_velo.pdf; A. Ulusoy (2004) Avrupa İnsan Hakları Mahkemesi'nin Üniversitelerde Türban Yasağına İli¸kin Kararları Üzerine Notlar, AÜHFD 53(4) pp. 125–134.

⁸¹ For details see: H. Yavuz (2003) Islamic Political Identity in Turkey (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

⁸²Aksoy, Ba¸örtüsü-Türban, p. 163.

⁸³ Ibid, p. 203.

⁸⁴ Kara Çar¸af Üzerinde Altı Ok [Six Arrows on the Black Veil] (2008) Milliyet, November 20, 2008; CHP'den İzmir'de Çar¸af Açılımı [Black Veil Initiative from the CHP in İzmir] (2012) Milliyet, November 27, 2008.

⁸⁵ The Nationalist Action Party had a headscarved deputy between 1999 and 2001. After the June 7, 2015 elections, both the JDP and the People's Democratic Party have headscarved deputies.

⁸⁶ The headscarf was used by almost 60 percent of the female population while Sheria was desired by almost 9 percent of the population. Furthermore, half of the people who favored Sheria do not understand the subliminal repercussions of Sheria adequately. These rates taken from 2006 TESEV report by A. Çarkoğlu & B. Toprak (2007) Religion, Society and Politics in a Changing Turkey (Istanbul: TESEV Publications).