Hijab-donned Turkish girls face hard times

By Sa’ad Abdul Majid, IOL Correspondent

ISTANBUL, February 14 (IslamOnline.net) – Despite 1500 cases of hijab-related human rights violations in 2003 alone, hijab-donned students in Turkey are resolved not to take it off.

Some could not help but put on wigs over their headscarves to carry on with their educational ambitions under the strictly secular system of the country or resort to private education.

Others opted for getting married and leaving classes or filing lawsuits against their universities and schools before the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

"I don a wig over my hijab when I go to university. I think it is lawful [to cope with secular Turkey]," Bayda Asin, 17, told IslamOnline.net.

But Somiya Safin, 17, is determined not to take off her hijab, although her parents allowed her to put on the wig.

"I will not sell my religion. Hijab is a divine obligation and established by the holy Qur’an," she averred.

After being forced to drop out from the preliminary stage, Sahar Suran, now 18, said she joined private classes to study Qur’an and other religious subjects.

"My family and I were fully aware from the very beginning that I must abandon my hijab and join co-education, which is totally rejected," she asserted.

Isha kilinsh, 25, said she took the pains in finishing school wearing hijab, but her hopes of going to university were dashed.

"I could not enroll in any college due to my hijab and I decide to learn English instead," she said.

Others preferred marriage and dropped out in the face of a fierce anti-hijab campaign.

"I, like many others, had to get married early because no one supported our case against such injustice, which deprived us from our right to education and work," Hatun Abdul Majid lamented.

1500 Offences

Yalmiz Oglo, the head of a Turkish rights group, recalled registering 1500 human rights violations against hijab-donned women and girls in 2003 alone.

Layla Shain, a medicine student, and Zinab Takin, who was studying nursery, resorted to the ECHR after being kicked out from their colleges for wearing hijab.

Being an ECHR signatory, Turkey would have to abide by the court if ruling in favor of the girls.

On November 26, a Turkish court in the southern city of Malatya decided to imprison three hijab-donned students after they had "illegally" took to the streets to defend their right to wear hijab.

Although the ruling Justice and Development party had promised to put forward a bill to annul hijab ban in stat-run institutions, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan fears a confrontation with the powerful and influential military establishment, a staunch advocate of secularism.

Enforcement of the ban has been tightened since 1997 when the military launched a harsh secularist campaign and ousted Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister Necmettin Erbakan.

Virtue MP Merve Kavakci triggered outrage among fellow deputies when she attempted to take her parliamentary oath in 1999 wearing a hijab. She was never allowed to take her seat.

The anti-hijab drive, in effect, is gathering steam in different European countries.

On Tuesday, February 10, French lawmakers overwhelmingly backed a law to ban hijab and religious insignia in schools, despite the fierce opposition from the country’s sizable minorities and international rights groups.