THE HEADSCARF ISSUE IN FEMINIST DISCOURSE IN TURKEY

Özet

I. Introduction The controversy around headscarf issue is still an important subject in Turkey as this is related to the visibility of those women who wear headscarves in public. Its significance directly relates to the question of democracy and the definition of the public sphere. There are many different arguments on the headscarf issue among feminists in Turkey. These arguments differ from each other based on the ideological and political positions of these feminist women. Are the various arguments of feminism related to the existence of different feminist groups or rather the individuals? In this paper, feminism is taken into account as three distinct categories or political groups. These groups are Islamist feminist women, Kemalist or secular feminist women, and finally the feminist women whose primary political and ideological identity is feminism. I will be examining and comparing the different theses of these feminist groups in Turkey in order to understand the discourse of feminism concerning headscarf issue.