The 46-page report analyses
the state-imposed ban on the wearing of the headscarf in Turkish
universities. It also details the domineering role of the Higher
Education Council (Yuksek Ogretim Kurulu, or YÖK), created by the
military after the 1980 coup in Turkey.
Despite the welcome removal of the military’s nominee from the Council
as part of constitutional changes in May, the military continues to
express strong public views about education policy and oppose any threat
to the Council’s firm hold over the university system.
“The Turkish government has still not dispelled the coercion and
self-censorship that pervade academic life,” said Rachel Denber.
“Professors continue to be disciplined for challenging state practices.”
The most recent example was the removal of Professor Şebnem Korur
Fincanci from her post as head of Istanbul Unversity’s Forensic Medicine
Department in April because she had made comments questioning the state
Forensic Medicine Institute’s determination to combat torture.
The report examines the state-imposed headscarf ban that has excluded
thousands of women from higher education. Hundreds of others have been
suspended or discharged from teaching posts as a result.
Implementation of the ban has intensified since 1997 when the military
delivered an ultimatum to the government of the day. Supporters of the
ruling Justice and Development Party would like the government to lift
the ban, but it dares not defy the military on this sensitive matter,
which the military sees as a touchstone of modern Turkey’s secular
identity.
The Human Rights Watch report looks at the historical, social and
political context of the headscarf issue. The subject is of even greater
contention in Turkey than elsewhere in Europe. Many of Turkey’s
secularists believe that the religious parties plan to eliminate
secularism bit by bit, and that the headscarf is the first step.
Human Rights Watch believes the headscarf prohibition is an unwarranted
infringement on the right to religious practice. Moreover, the
restriction of women’s dress is discriminatory and violates their right
to education, their right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion, and their right to privacy.
In the name of secularism, the Turkish government imposes the headscarf
ban as a barrier to the perceived threat: the encroachment of Islam into
the political field. In fact, the protection of religious freedom is
fully consistent with secularism in state institutions. Accommodating
different forms of religious headgear does not suggest that state
authorities endorse any particular religion and does not require
additional state resources.
Rather, protecting religious freedoms demonstrates the very respect for
the diversity of religious conscience on which the secularism of public
institutions is founded. Requiring or forbidding students to wear
visible religious dress is a failure in the duty of the state to avoid
coercion in matters of religious conscience.
Headscarves do not pose a threat to public safety, health, order or
morals, and they do not impinge on the rights of others, Human Rights
Watch said. Furthermore, headscarves are not inherently dangerous or
disruptive of order, and do not undermine educational functions.
“The Turkish authorities say they want to protect women who choose not
to wear the headscarf," said Denber. "But bullying women out of higher
education because of the way they choose to dress is a poor way to
protect women’s freedoms.”
Human Rights Watch urged the government to lift the headscarf ban as
part of a broader strategy for remedying shortcomings in the protection
of women and improving their access to education and employment. A
similar approach has been suggested by the United Nations Committee on
the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
Several Turkish students barred from university education for wearing
the headscarf have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which
is scheduled to rule on their cases today. Under the European Convention
on Human Rights, the students allege that the ban breaches their rights
to religious freedom, freedom of expression, right to privacy and that
it is discriminatory. The trend in the court’s recent decisions has been
to uphold governments’ right to restrict the wearing of the headscarf
“in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order,
health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of
others.”
The Human Rights Watch report questions the zero-sum assumption that the
broadening of the rights and freedoms of devout Muslims would
necessarily narrow those of non-Muslims and secularists. The report also
highlights the efforts of groups working within Turkish society toward a
genuinely pluralist approach to ensure that women are able to make their
own free choice whether to wear the headscarf.
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