Headscarves at the Crossroads between Plural Narratives: Where is Turkey Moving Toward?

Abstract

Abstract In a recent judgement, the ECJ held that a ban on employees wearing visible political, philosophical or religious signs in the workplace does not amount to direct discrimination under EU law. The Turkish government condemned such a ruling, as an expression of European Islamophobia. However, the issue of religious headscarves has been at the center of a harsh decades-long political and legal debate in Turkey, where it has symbolized the clash between tradition and modernity, religious and secular values. In the present article, the tensions underlying the multiple narratives of the Islamic headscarf will be analyzed starting from the polarization between two opposite views: Turkey as a secular State versus Turkey as a theocracy. The article will underline the need for a depolarization of the legal-political conflict between religion and public space, allowing women to build their autonomous understanding of the religious message and to self-define their identities in the public space.