Headscarf controversy in Turkey

Common card · No. 295605

In the Ottoman Empire, dress codes were based on religious and ethnic principles and also served as an indicator of professional and social status. However, in the last two centuries of the Empire, with increasing interaction with the Western world, Muslim women began to abandon traditional clothings and wear garments that bore Western influences. These garments left their faces and necks exposed as outer dress. During this period, imperial decrees were issued to prevent this trend. However, the presence of some rulers and sultans, alongside the writers and artists who encouraged this change, accelerated this trend rather than halting it. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had the ambition to transform Turkey into a new modern secular state. The modernization reform program of Turkey by him abolished sex segregation and encouraged women to unveil as a part of a social revolution in order to make Turkey a modern state. He appeared in public with his wife Latife Uşaki unveiled, and arranged formal state...

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