The Headscarf in Turkey in the Public and State Spheres

Cindoglu and Zencirci deal with the trajectories of the headscarf issue in contemporary Turkey from the gender politics angle by exploring its counter-hegemonic potential in a historical perspective. They take the issue with the transformation in the ways in which doing politics through women via the discussions of the headscarf has shaped the political terrain of contemporary Turkey during the post-1980 period. They trace three such events in order to examine the transformation of this contestation: the first is the case of Merve Kavakci, former elected MP of the now dismantled Welfare Party, who drew protests in the National Assembly because she entered it and demanded to take her oath wearing a headscarf; the second case is the so-called Reception Crisis in 2003, when the presidential palace failed to invite to the Reception the wives of MPs from the Justice and Development Party who wear the headscarf regularly; and the third case is to examine the recent emergence of the issue of Mrs. Erdogan's and Mrs. Gul's headscarves in relation to the presidential elections.