To veil or not to veil

The contested location of gender in contemporary Turkey

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4546088
AutoresFatma Muge Gocek (0000-0001-6727-045X, University of Michigan, autor de correspondencia)
Año1999
Volumen1
Número4
Páginas521-535
Fecha de publicación1999-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInterventions (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1369-801X • E-ISSN: 1469-929X
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13698019900510801
OpenAlexW1979313061
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas13

This article focuses on the April 1999 ‘headscarf incident’ at the Turkish national assembly when two newly elected headscarved deputies had to be sworn in: while one unveiled for the ceremony to obey the rule on wearing ‘modern’ attire and was sworn in, the other remained veiled, claiming it was her religious responsibility and civil right to do so, only to be protested by the social democrats for politicizing religion, thus having to leave without being sworn in. The argument takes issue with the interpretation of the incident solely as another individual enactment of the secularist-Islamist divide in Turkey, and presents instead a multivalent approach that studies the layers of meaning that form around the incident, comprising political posturing, polarization, intercession and silences. By so doing, the article moves the debate from the personal gendered choices of the protagonists to the societal forces that shape their actions

Ceremony · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Turkish · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philosophy · Turkey's Politics and Society