The Foreign Service Journal, April 2008

mitted to have more than one wife at at time, as Shariah would allow, only 6 to 7 percent agree. And when asked whether hands should be cut off for stealing or adulterers should be stoned — punishments Islamic law mandates — only 1 percent of Turks support such extreme mea- sures. Clearly, many Turks either do not really under- stand what adopting Shariah would mean or believe they would be able to tailor its requirements to the Turkish environment. The Headscarf Controversy Turkish women have enjoyed equal rights with men before the law since Ataturk’s day. To replace Islamic law, he introduced Western legal codes that have remained in force ever since. But he did not stop with merely chang- ing the rules of the game. He saw to it that women exer- cised the right to vote and were elected to political office. Under his encouragement women entered the National Assembly, became judges, and served as university pro- fessors as early as the 1930s. Yet it took until the mid- 1990s for a woman, Tansu Ciller, to become a party leader and prime minister. Moreover, while urban women have generally taken advantage of their secular opportunities, many rural women remain bound in tradition. At present all major parties nominate women to run as deputies; and even the religiously oriented AK Party saw the number of its female candidates elected to Parliament in the last election rise to 26, double the total five years earlier. Today, roughly a tenth of Parliament is made up of women. But while the political fortunes of women thus far in Turkey might suggest that they are gaining in rights, there is a strong current of concern in feminist circles that, in fact, the pressures on women to conform to traditional Islamic practices are rising. One of the main foci of this concern is the headscarf issue (known as a “turban” in Turkey), which secular Turkish women often consider the nose of the camel under the tent. They worry that the entire beast will eventually force its way in, and that all women will be forced to conform to Islamic practices. F O C U S A P R I L 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 31