By M. Bilal Kenasari
ANKARA
Amid Turkey’s bitterly-contested local elections, which witnessed social-media bans, secret wiretapping and leaked conversations, a perennial political issue passed relatively unnoticed: Turkey’s controversial ban on the Muslim headscarf in the workplace.
Now voters have elected five covered women, from opposite ends of the political spectrum, in what is being seen as a landmark breakthrough in efforts to challenge the state restriction.
During the nationwide contest, which ended in victory on Sunday for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s incumbent Justice and Development Party, voters also elected covered women from different territories of Turkey; two from the ruling AK Party and two from the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).
AK Party candidate Fatma Toru was elected to Konya's Meram district; this win makes the 42-year-old the first-ever covered woman to become a municipal mayor in Turkey.
Toru was the first candidate to be announced her victory after the counting started in Konya. She said: “We are witnessing new things in Turkey; we are the pioneers of women, whose rights were ignored in politics and in the public sphere due to their beliefs, and I hope to succeed in my new assignment.”
Fethiye Atli, who was fired from her state job in 2000 due to her headscarf, was elected mayor of Keban in Elazig province. She said: "I worked 10 years as an accountant, but during 28 February 1998, I was under pressure and often I was reported. In 2000 I was kicked out due to my headscarf".
In Gudul town, near the Turkish capital Ankara, the new AK Party mayor, Havva Yildirim, also sports a headscarf. In faraway Diyarbakir province in the country’s southeast, BDP candidate Berican Elif Kilic became mayor of Kocakoy as did fellow BDP member Diba Keskin who became Ercis’ mayor in the neighbouring Van province.
As headscarves were banned in parliament until late 2013, the election of the five covered mayors is being considered a vital moment in Turkey's history as a secular republic.
"These are the first steps after 40 years of difficulty for veiled women" Sibel Eraslan, a newspaper columnist and headscarf wearer, told Anadolu Agency.
Eraslan saw her barred from practicing her chosen profession as a lawyer for 25 years.
Now a writer for the Star daily in Turkey, she said: "This is a basic human right; politics play an essential role in representation of the public, and the veiled representatives are important in this regard.
"Despite the fact that it is a late move by Turkey, it is still important moment for us," she added.
Eraslan also pointed to the fact that the newly elected mayors are experienced people in their job as they had been working in different state jobs before.
With a constitutional principle of official secularism, Turkish governments have traditionally banned women who wear headscarves from working in the public sector.
During 28 February 1998, famously known in Turkey as post-modern coup d'etat, female lawyers and journalists who refused to comply with the ban were expelled from public buildings such as courtrooms and universities.
Merve Kavakci was a covered Istanbul MP barred from taking her oath of office in 1999 because of her headscarf, a decision which ended up costing her her Turkish citizenship. Her religious-leaning Virtue Party was closed down by Turkey’s Constitutional Court in June 2001 which banned five parliamentarians, including Kavakci, from running for office for five years.
Describing the new mayors as a “sign of normalization” she told AA: "This is the face of new Turkey."
"Women gained the right to be elected for local elections in 1930, but veiled women have just won this right after almost a century," Kavakci said.
"It is also important for Turkish politics that veiled women are not only elected from the AK Party but also from the BDP.".
Yıldız Ramazanoglu, a Turkish intellectual, said there had been great disappointment after Kavakci was barred from parliament, something which sparked fears for the future of covered politicians in Turkish politics.
She added that the newly elected women show that "we are at the end of era, where discrimination against those women is over".
"Veiled women, now only need to be judged according to their profession, rather than their headscarf," Ramazanoglu added.
Turkey has lifted the rule banning women from wearing headscarves in many of the country's state institutions, with the exception for the judiciary, military and police.
Erdogan made the announcement as part of a democratization package aimed at introducing liberal reforms. After the ban was lifted, four veiled female deputies took their seats in parliament.
"In 'New Turkey', we hope that elected women will be able to perform their duty at their best level," Ramazanoglu concluded.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
