Subversion and subjugation in the public sphere secularism and the islamic headscarf in Turkey

Abstract

In the mid-1980s, university students wearing the Islamic headscarf started to appear in public places in Turkey, giving a new sort of visibility to Islam in the public sphere contrary to the secularist norms sanctioned by the state.1Within a decade the headscarf went from being a controversial item of religious attire to a matter of Turkish national security. In February 1997, the National Security Council identified the headscarf as one of the main indicators of the "Islamic threat"-the single most important threat to the well-being and security of the country-and called for the enforcement of a ban on the headscarf in all public places including classrooms, universities, and public offices. How is it that such a simple item of clothing can turn into such a powerful disruptive force? This chapter explores the headscarf controversy in the context of contemporary debates about gender and the public sphere. I am particularly interested in how the public sphere in Turkey has been produced in relation to norms of secularism and modernity by the forging and display of new gender identities, especially through regulations on clothing and the appearance of women. I also examine the emergence of new Islamic subjectivities through the increasing visibility of the Islamic headscarf in secular public spaces, which poses a sufficiently formidable challenge to the authority and power of secularist discourse that it has been deemed a threat to national security. By comparing the gendered and gendering interven- Tions of the secularizing Turkish state of the 1920s and the Islamist elite of the 1990s, I suggest that Jurgen Habermas's conception of the public sphere requires revision. Contrary to the notion that the public sphere is a space for political participation and the expansion of political liberties, women's experiences in the public sphere require a more complicated assessment of the nature and uses of the public sphere. Indeed I argue that, understood as a gendered regime of presence and visibility, the public sphere can limit political liberties and operate as a form of subjugation. Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2012. All rights reserved.