THE CHANGING DYNAMICS OF THE HEADSCARF QUESTION IN TURKEY: THE WOMEN’S STRUGGLE TO TAKE OFF THE HEADSCARF by SÜMEYYE KOCA Submitted to the Graduate School of Social Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Sabancı University August 2020 THE CHANGING DYNAMICS OF THE HEADSCARF QUESTION IN TURKEY: THE WOMEN’S STRUGGLE TO TAKE OFF THE HEADSCARF Approved by: Asst. Prof. Nedim Nami Nomer . (Thesis Supervisor) Asst. Prof. Ateş Ali Altınordu . Prof. Yeşim Arat . Date of Approval: August 10, 2020 SÜMEYYE KOCA 2020 c All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT THE CHANGING DYNAMICS OF THE HEADSCARF QUESTION IN TURKEY: THE WOMEN’S STRUGGLE TO TAKE OFF THE HEADSCARF SÜMEYYE KOCA POLITICAL SCIENCE M.A. THESIS, AUGUST 2020 Thesis Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Nedim Nami Nomer Keywords: headscarf, un-veiling, stigmatization, social expectations, everday religion The thesis aims to question the changing dynamics of the headscarf question in Turkey. Based on in-depth interviews with women who took off their headscarves, the research primarily focuses on the women’s experiences of the practice of veiling and un-veiling to analyze personal and social intricacies behind women’s decisions to take off their headscarves. The narratives of un-veiled women is contextualized through an analysis of continuities and ruptures between their experiences of veiling and un-veiling practices. This thesis mainly seeks to answer the following questions: Why do young veiled women, who were grown up in religious families and socialized in Islamist community circles, decide to take off their headscarves? How do the symbolic meanings of the headscarf create the complicated social expectations for veiled women? How do the current social and political conditions, if any, affect the women’s decisions to un-veil? How do they narrate their veiling and un-veiling practices in relation to the normative understanding of Islam and secularism in Turkey? The thesis, therefore, concludes that the decision to take off the headscarf arises from mainly two motivations: First, an Islamic stigma symbol (Goffman 1963; Göle 2003), or the social aspects of veiling in terms of the representation of pious identity in a consistent way, has rejected by taking off the headscarf. Second, the fieldwork finds out another reason behind removing the headscarf as the rejection of religion itself and religious obligations as well. iv ÖZET TÜRKİYE’DE BAŞÖRTÜSÜ SORUNUNUN DEĞİŞEN DİNAMİKLERİ: KADINLARIN BAŞÖRTÜSÜNÜ ÇIKARMA MÜCADELESİ SÜMEYYE KOCA SİYASET BİLİMİ YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZİ, AĞUSTOS 2020 Tez Danışmanı: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Nedim Nami Nomer Anahtar Kelimeler: başörtüsü, başörtüsünü çıkarma, damgamala, toplumsal beklentiler, gündelik hayatta din Bu tez Türkiye’de başörtüsü sorunun değişen dinamiklerini sorgulamayı amaçla- maktadır. Başörtülerini çıkaran kadınlarla yapılan derinlemesine görüşmelere dayanan araştırma, öncelikle kadınların başörtülerini çıkarma kararlarının ardın- daki kişisel ve sosyal karışıklıkları analiz etmek için kadınların başörtüsü takma ve çıkarma pratiğine odaklanıyor. Başörtüsünü çıkaran kadınların anlatıları, başörtüsünü takma ve çıkarma deneyimlerindeki sürekliliklerin ve kırılmaların anal- izi yoluyla bağlamsallaştırılmıştır. Bu tez, başlıca şu soruları yanıtlamayı amaçla- maktadır: Dindar ailelerde yetişen ve İslami sosyal çevrelerde sosyalleşen kadınlar neden başörtülerini çıkarmaya karar veriyorlar? Başörtüsünün sembolik anlamları başörtülü kadınlara yönelik nasıl toplumsal beklentiler yaratır? Mevcut toplumsal ve politik koşullar kadınların başörtülerini çıkarma kararlarını nasıl etkiler? Kadın- lar kendi başörtü takma ve çıkarma pratiklerini Türkiye’deki normatif İslam ve sekülerlik anlayışları bağlamında nasıl anlatıyorlar? Bu sorular doğrultusunda, tez başörtüsünü çıkarma kararının başlıca iki motivasyondan kaynaklandığı sonucuna varmaktadır: Birincisi, İslami bir sembol (Goffman 1963; Göle 2003), ya da din- dar kimliğin tutarlı bir şekilde temsil edilmesi açısından başörtüsünün toplumsal yönleri, başörtüsünün çıkarılmasıyla reddilmektedir. İkinci olarak, saha çalışması, başörtüsünü çıkarmanın ardındaki başka bir nedeni de dini inancın ve dolayısıyla dini yükümlülüklerin reddedilmesi olarak ortaya koymaktadır. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Above all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the participants of this thesis, Deniz, Sevgi, Jasmine, Burcu, Elif, Duru, Nilay and Ahsen who made the thesis come through. This research is done for you to make your stories more visible. I am really thankful to each of you for your sincerity, openness and friendship during our conversations. You lighted the way for me to personally transform myself and to finally complete this thesis. This was the beginning in my academic journey, and this experience would not be so much exciting and instructive without your support. Also, I am particularly grateful to Ecmel Ertaş, Sıla Türköne, Merve Baykal, Merve, and Tuğba Yavuz who helped me to get in touch with the participants of this research; and to Havle Women’s Association and Yalnız Yürümeyeceksin (You Will Never Walk Alone) that circulated my message of looking for the participants to their networks. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor Nedim Nomer. He generously supported me in all the ways and patiently listened all my questions. He always encouraged me with a bunch of questions to elaborate on my arguments in a very detailed way. I am also thankful to my thesis committee members, Ateş Altınordu and Yeşim Arat, for their insightful comments and constructive feedbacks. I met Ateş Altınordu by chance in the university dining hall, and mentioned of a paper I wrote on a topic similar to the subject of this thesis. He was really interested in the subject, gave a very detailed feedback on my paper, and urged me to study further on it. The paper is fianally carried a step further through this thesis. Yeşim Arat is an inspiring professor for me in my academic journey. I began to delve into the issues of veiling with reading her profound articles. I have learned so much from her researches by posing a lot of questions to them so that it is always a splendid learning process for me. I am lucky to meet her before anything else. I am extremely grateful to Ayşe Gül Altınay. I have no word to thank her; no word can describe how she broadened my horizon. I met her at Sabancı University, and my life changed from that moment on. She is the one, as a fabulous woman and a wonderful academic, who prompted me to think on what kept me alive. I am also thankful to Zeynep Gülru Göker. She provided me with insightful feedbacks on my thesis subject, and she had always time for me whenever I wanted to discuss my endless questions with her. vi I sincerely thank Arda Güçler who is my colleague at Özyeğin University. He insis- tently urged me to write every single idea that came to my mind in this process. He constructively commented on my written pieces, curiously listened my observations in the field; and, I really enjoyed to spend my lunch breaks with him during my stressful times at the workplace. I would also like to thank my colleagues Furkan Meraloğlu and Duygun Ruben. They did most of paper works and gave me more time to focus on my thesis in the last two months. By the way, we had great chats with Furkan during our very long smoke breaks, and this was the only thing that motivated me to go to work during my stressful times. I am most indebted to my dearest friends. Thank you Zeynep Kuyumcu. This thesis would ever and never be completed without your invaluable feedbacks to each and every sentence in this thesis and your endless support to all ups and downs during my academic and emotional deadlocks for years. You were always with me during my worst times when I barely wrote literally one sentence for days; you made me believe that I would be the one who could live in California, and it was again you who helped me to get rid of a huge disappointment after I got a rejection from Berkeley. Thank you Egesu Sayar. I am not sure how I came through my horrible days at Sabancı University without you. You made me aware of all Ph.D. positions and scholarships in European universities with deadlines, requirements and all detailed stuff though I did not apply to any of them! I am incredibly lucky to have a perfect companion like exactly you in the darkness. This is you, such a fabulous woman, who convinced me that I will be an academic in an unknown future. Thank you Vahdet İşsevenler. You know me better than I know myself. Whenever I needed to clarify my mind or to hear the right words, I always knew that you were sitting at your glorious chair to give me an endless speech. Your old-school jokes became the most important support mechanism for me in stressful times of writing the thesis. Finally, I want to thank my brother Samed Koca. I always felt his invaluable support, endless love and priceless friendship during my hard times. He is the one who I will always owe to in my entire life. I am grateful to my parents who always support me in my academic journey without even a question. I hope to publish a part of this thesis, at least, in Turkish to make reading it possible for them with a fragile hope that they might know a little about what I had to cope with for many years. vii To all women who are in pursuit of their own ways, viii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................ 1 1.1. Background and Statement of the Problem............................1 1.2. Organization of the Chapters..........................................7 1.3. Methodology........................................................... 12 2. THE FIELD ............................................................... 18 2.1. Brief Information on the Participants................................. 18 2.2. General Overview of the Fieldwork.................................... 28 2.3. My Positionality as a Researcher...................................... 35 3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE HEADSCARF QUES- TION IN TURKEY ...................................................... 43 3.1. The Headscarf: A Simple Dress or an Existential Crisis?.............