The true agenda of Turkey

These are not the issues that ought to figure high on the agenda of this country. Despite all the reforms and all the advances achieved over the past several years, human rights and liberties, individual freedoms, free exercise of religious beliefs and equality for all remain as major issues for this country and for the entire nation — even for the prime minister and his wife, as well as the kids alleged to have been raped some time ago.

Don’t we have surprise and landmark developments? Sure … For example, the Court of Appeals ruling acquitting a writer of charges under Penal Code Article 312 (that regulates penalties for exploitation of religion) is directly related with freedom of thought. Unfortunately, that ruling of the Court of Appeals found less place in the media than another verdict of the same court accepting the stinginess of a husband or a wife as a reason to get divorced.

Being secularist should not mean indifference to religious feelings of the other. Furthermore, a peace of cloth — even if used by some extremists and grossly exploited by the political Islam and converted into an emblem — cannot pose a threat to the secularist foundations of this republic. Such a fear is itself an insult to the republic.

By banning the headscarf — in the very same fashion the use of Kurdish language — an artificial issue has been created. Lifting that ban will not pose a threat to the republic but will outgun Islamist extremists and political Islam while enchanting the practicing Muslim people of this country.

Many people still have the fear that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government may have a secret agenda and are looking for the best time to unleash it. We should not mix such fears with honest expressions of a father prime minister when he says, “My family are practicing Muslim people. My daughter wants to cover her head. We believe Islam tells women to cover their heads in public. This ban needs to be revoked.”

Where is the danger to the republic or the secularism principle if we allow girl students to attend classes wearing a headscarf? If the ban is lifted, on the other hand, as exploitation of the issue will end as well, we will see that the number of girl students wearing a turban will gradually decrease. We have to reform our mentality and we have to understand that the religious beliefs of others are as sacred as ours.