Muslim democratic women of Turkey
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ

When I sat down behind the speakers’ table, I had the opportunity to see the audience. One thing immediately stood out. Most of the participants were women, and most of these women wore a headscarf. It was a nice surprise to see so many covered women in a liberal youth meeting.

After delivering my speech, I went down and spoke with the organizers. I thought they chose to invite many women wearing a headscarf, but they had a different explanation. They said they had requested all applicants to fill out a survey in order to find the most appropriate participants for this event. They chose 100 participants out of 500 young adults who applied to attend the conference. While making their assessment, they focused on the answers applicants provided on their application forms. They tried to choose the applicants who projected the most democratic and liberal views in their answers. “We did not ask applicants for their photos so we, too, were surprised to see so many covered women here,” one of the organizers said.

This incident came to mind when I saw the picture of a covered woman in Today’s Zaman on Wednesday. Her photo was taken during the commemoration ceremony of the third anniversary of the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. She was holding a placard with Armenian words on it. I was delighted to see this photo.

Both incidents reinforced some of my observations about a new social phenomenon in Turkey. Conservative people are becoming more and more democratic in the real sense of the word. We now have a new generation of devout Muslim women who are ready to fight for more freedom, more democracy and more human rights for everyone, instead of only focusing on their own victimhood. These women are not allowed to go to universities or hold public posts because of the headscarf they wear. They are discriminated against because of their religious beliefs, just because they cover their heads. So I find it very significant to see some devout Muslim women stand up and fight for the rights of “others.”

In my opinion, being a democrat has nothing to do with any special ideology. Having a particular ideology, worldview or religious belief does not automatically make anyone a democrat or an enemy of freedom. Being a democrat is not the exclusive right of any particular group.

Fighting against an oppressor does not make you a democrat either. Some devout Muslims in Turkey have this illusion and think that fighting against the military guardianship in Turkey automatically makes them democrats. They do not understand that being a democrat has nothing to do with who you are fighting against but is all about tolerance, compassion for people who may be completely different from you and sometimes even fighting for their rights and freedoms.

Turkey’s secular elites and Kemalists think “being modern” automatically makes them more democratic, more fashionable and more Western than Turkey’s devout Muslims. I am amazed by their ignorance of this country’s people and their feeling of being superior to conservative and religious people. They are not aware of the fact that there are many conservative and religious people in Turkey who can teach these secular elites a lesson or two on being democratic and being citizens of the world.

I assure you, it is almost impossible to understand Turkey if you have certain stereotypes in your mind. Who is a leftist, who is a rightist, who is a reformist, who is really democratic -- these might be extremely difficult to comprehend when it comes to positions in Turkey. If you equate devout Muslims with anti-democratic views, you will automatically not be able to understand this country at all.

I had the privilege of getting to know some democratic Muslims very closely. I know them from the human rights field, I know them from some political movements and so on. Knowing them immensely helped me understand my country and its real dynamics. However, these individuals were not many in number. Most devout Muslims were obsessed with their victimization by the regime in Turkey and had no understanding of the suffering and anguish of others in this country.