Taking a step back from the all-consuming world of Turkish politics, it is interesting to look at what mobilizes the media and public opinion in other countries.France, at the center of the current furor in Turkey, is the only country where the Islamic headscarf generates as much heat as it does here. As France gets ready for regional elections that will take place in March, the discussion there has taken a new and interesting twist with the candidacy of a 22-year-old Muslim student, who figures in fourth place on the electoral list submitted by the militant leftist New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in the Vaucluse region.
Born into a family of Moroccan origin, Ilham Moussaïd has played an active role in the party since its foundation a year ago. She is known for her involvement in the community, and she shares her party’s official views on issues such as secularism, abortion and gay rights.
In short, she has all the right credentials for a leftist militant. Except for the headscarf she wears. Following the debate on national identity and the issue of the burqa, the small piece of cloth worn by Moussaïd is now dividing the French left and drawing angry reactions from across the political spectrum as her party stands accused of wanting to exploit the shock factor of the Islamic veil.
So far, the political storm does not appear to have deterred the feisty young candidate, who hardly conforms to the stereotypes of a submissive woman brandished by some of her critics. Even if her political career does not take off, Moussaïd is helping challenge traditional perceptions. Standing by her convictions, all she asks is for people to look beyond her veil and assess her on the basis of her views and her actions.
The disconnect between public perceptions and the real person is also at the center of a stormy discussion, albeit in a reverse fashion, in England at the moment.
Amnesty International has become embroiled in a controversy over former Guantanamo prisoner Moazzam Begg. Amnesty, like other human rights organizations, fought against the illegal detention without charges of terror suspects. Begg is one of nine Britons who were captured by US forces, suffered ill-treatment and were jailed for years in Guantanamo before being released. Since then, the former prisoner and some of his friends have launched an organization to fight for the rights of other detainees still held by the US.
An internal dispute has recently erupted over Amnesty’s continued involvement with Begg. The head of Amnesty’s gender unit was suspended after warning that Begg openly praises the Taliban, who are not known for their respect of human rights and particularly the rights of Afghan women, and that the organization made the mistake of seeing Begg not just as a “victim of human rights violations but a defender of human rights.”
Unlike in the case of Moussaïd, where the headscarf is preventing many French people from seeing her as a modern woman, the Amnesty official in effect argued that in Begg’s case the mantle of victimhood was obscuring less savory aspects of his campaign. Begg himself argues he is merely in favor of engagement with the Taliban, a view that is now increasingly accepted by allied troops in Afghanistan.
There is always a temptation to believe that victims naturally become defenders of freedoms, but sadly this is not always the case.
In the Turkish context, too, having been at the receiving end of the excesses committed by the deep state does not necessarily turn people into democrats. Ultimately it is only on their own actions, and not on general perceptions or on the wrongs inflicted upon them, that people can be judged.
