Political Climate and the Headscarf Issue in Turkey: A Perspective from the Labor Market.

• Author: Karahan, Hatice
• Position: ARTICLE

Introduction

The headscarf has functioned as a major factor in discrimination against Turkish women throughout the history of the Republic. The beginning of the prohibitions against headscarved women dates back to the 1960s when an increasing number of young women wearing headscarves attended universities. These women were prevented from attending classes during their studies and were denied work in the public sector and state offices. This discrimination was officially sanctioned by the state in the first comprehensive legislative ban against them, which took effect after the coup d'etat in 1980. The military regime that took power right after the coup imposed a ban on headscarves at Turkish universities, some of which fully implemented it. In addition, women working at public institutions and schools were ordered not to cover their hair. Although the civil government that later took office, headed by Prime Minister Turgut Ozal, made some efforts to remove the restrictions, President Kenan Evren, who was also the leader of the 1980 coup, vetoed the changes to the regulations. While Ozal's democratization efforts in the late 1980s and early 1990s helped mitigate the prohibitive practices at universities to some extent, the later, 'postmodern' coup of February 28, 1997, brought all the bans back even stronger. On the path to the postmodern coup, a chaotic climate was created in Turkish society through the so-called 'Struggle against the Islamic Reactionism' initiative. (1) Accordingly, in the period following the coup, headscarved women were strictly banned from universities and all state institutions, including schools and hospitals. (2) As an indirect effect, the bans also caused the private sector to hesitate in offering employment to these women, or to exploit them by offering substandard conditions and very low wages. (3) The bans in the public sector were thus reflected in the private sector as a spillover effect, (4) and the job opportunities provided by private companies for this cohort were extremely limited or undesirable. Moreover, particularly in metropolitan areas, the practices of the state had serious consequences on the social status of women wearing the headscarf, often leading to mistreatment and hostility. As a signifier of religion, the headscarf was used as a means of discrimination across Turkey. (5) The secular segments of society reproduced the official state ideology against women wearing religious attire by declaring the headscarf as anti-secular, anti-modern, and oppressive. (6)

The sharp restrictions and discrimination in Turkey against women wearing the headscarf continued in the 2000s as well. Although the Justice and Development Party (AK Party, Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi), which took office in late 2002 under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, initiated a reform and democratization process, (7) the headscarf issue was not effectively placed on the political agenda until 2008, when the first important step was taken; the AK Party collaborated with two other political parties and brought a bill to the Parliament to lift the headscarf ban at universities. Although the bill was approved by a majority in the Parliament, the Republican People's Party (CHP, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) had it canceled by the Supreme Court. Thus, the headscarf issue reached a point of deadlock once again, because of the reactions of the secular sections of the country. (8)

Nonetheless, the quest by the government and the religious segments of the society for justice for headscarved women in Turkey continued. Finally, in 2013, the bans on headscarves for public employees were removed by the AK Party government with an amendment made as part of the dress code regulation. (9) Based on a Cabinet decree dated October 8, 2013, the phrase in Article 5 of the relevant regulation requiring female public officials to have uncovered hair in the workplace was removed. This amendment gave women with headscarves the right to be employed in the public sector. With the disappearance of the policy prohibiting the wearing of the headscarf in public and state spheres, private firms were also implicitly encouraged to employ headscarved professionals. These efforts aimed to provide socioeconomic equality for the women throughout the country who chose to wear the headscarf.

In this context, we propose to explore the effects of political endeavors to allow the participation of headscarved women in the labor market. While this investigation concentrates primarily on the recent improvement in public/state sector employment, we also note any changes in the private sector since 2013. Furthermore, we question the outlook for the headscarf issue from a labor market perspective, contingent on the political atmosphere. Thus, our research question is "What degree of impact does the political climate in Turkey have on the employment of headscarved professionals?" We hypothesize that the integration of headscarved professionals into the public sector is closely associated with the political atmosphere created recently in their favor. Accordingly, we argue that the status of these women in the public sector is vulnerable to future changes in the political climate. As for the private sector, we expect to find limited political influence, assuming that corporate policies are primarily built from Turkey's ideologically shaped cultural structures.

The literature on discrimination against headscarved professionals primarily includes cases in several Western and non-Muslim majority countries and needs to be diversified with an international perspective. It especially lacks sufficient research from Muslim-majority societies. Thus, Turkey is an important case to analyze, particularly about outcomes in the labor market since 2013. By investigating pertinent developments within this relevant time period, we aim to demonstrate the extent to which headscarved professionals have been accepted into the labor force and explore their prospects for the future. Therefore, this study is expected to make a meaningful contribution to the literature by analyzing a noteworthy social, economic and political issue in Turkey that concerns a large segment of the female population.

About this Study

This study is part of a body of comprehensive qualitative research investigating the position of headscarved, white-collar employees in the Turkish labor market through a semi-ethnographic method. The research was obtained through face-to-face, in-depth interviews (10) with 30 professionals from the financial sector in Turkey. The core of our sample consists of 22 headscarved women at various levels of seniority, who also had experience in sectors other than finance. The headscarved professionals in the financial sector worked in stateowned commercial banks and private Islamic finance (participation) banks, as we -expectedly- could not detect any headscarved professionals at private commercial banks. The remaining interviews were conducted with male and non-headscarved female managers and executives from all types of banks, i.e., private and public commercial banks, and Islamic finance banks. A key criterion for the selection of participants was having experience and/or observations related to the headscarf issue in the Turkish labor market.

The fieldwork was carried out in 2021. The financial sector is a major and female-intensive industry in the Turkish economy; analyzing the workplace treatment of headscarved professionals there should provide insight into the wider market. While we explored the position of headscarved women in the financial sector specifically, (11) we also asked the participants questions regarding the general outlook in the wider labor market. This paper presents the outcomes obtained from the latter questions. The previous experiences and extensive business relations of the interviewees pertaining to other sectors provided a considerable advantage for us in extending the research beyond the financial sector.

During the interviews, we asked the participating professionals to evaluate the current employment policies and practices that affect headscarved professionals in the public and private sectors. In this regard, participants not only described the present situation but also made comparisons with the past, shedding fresh light on relevant developments. Because the milestone in Turkey regarding the employment of women with the headscarf was the amendment made by the government in 2013, we particularly asked the interviewees to discuss the impact of political support on the increasing number of job opportunities for women with headscarves. In addition, we asked them to share their views...