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Report: Headscarved women face discrimination
The report, written by lawyer Fatma Benli, stated that even though discrimination against women who wear headscarves has decreased in recent years, “hate crimes” do continue, even though those are individual cases.
Benli, who conducted her research across cases throughout 2010 and in the first six months of 2011, remarked that military officers' clubs still prohibit the entry of women under 50 years of age who wear headscarves. She also gave the example of a university student in İzmir who tried to attend classes by wearing a hat but was humiliated by her classmates and instructor and she was forced to leave class.
In another case, the report noted that one teacher forcefully pulled off two female students' headscarves and hit their heads against a wall.
Benli indicated that some newspaper columnists who are in a position to shape public opinion are not sensitive to the issue.
Ahmet Faruk Ünsal, head of MAZLUM-DER, said that for an improvement of the situation, there is a need to declare that wearing a headscarf is a constitutional right.
“Discrimination against women who wear headscarves is against internationally accepted principles of law and the international agreements that Turkey has signed so far,” he said adding that for many jobs, “not wearing a headscarf” is a requirement.
Ünsal also said that women's right to be represented in Parliament has been taken away as women with headscarves were not well-positioned on candidate lists that could have enabled them to be elected before the June 12 general elections this year.
The use of the Muslim headscarf has been a matter of contention in Turkey. A headscarf ban applies to certain public and government offices and locations in Turkey. The ban affects university students as well as those working in the public sector. Women with headscarves are not allowed to enter military facilities, including hospitals and recreational areas belonging to the Turkish military.
Number of women who wear the headscarf is estimated to be around 60 percent in Turkey. Some researchers argue that if this 60 percent is either banned or discriminated against in the labor market, work life will very much be male oriented, as it is today. In Turkey, only 22 percent of women are in the labor market; and women's demands for equal pay, for equal work, or childcare or elderly care support or maternal provisions from the state and employers will not be heard under these circumstances.
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