Turkey: Erdogan proposes a referendum on the wearing of the veil

The veil-wearing debate has recently heated up in Turkey ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2023.

Source AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed on Saturday to launch a referendum on the wearing of the veil in his country.
© LUKAS KABON / ANADOLU AGENCY / Anadolu Agency via AFP

Published on 22/10/2022 at 6:07 p.m.
– Modified 22/10/2022 at 6:19 p.m.

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LTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday (October 22nd) proposed a referendum on a constitutional change to guarantee the right to wear a veil in the civil service, schools and universities during a televised intervention.

“If you have the courage, come, let’s submit this to the referendum (…) Let the nation take the decision”, launched the Turkish head of state, addressing the leader of the main opposition party Kemal Kilicdaroglu who had initially proposed a law to guarantee the right to wear the veil. The veil-wearing debate has recently heated up in Turkey ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2023.

With a Muslim majority, but having enshrined secularism in its Constitution, Turkey was for a long time a country where the wearing of the veil was prohibited in the public service, schools and universities, as well as in certain places, such as the Parliament or the premises. of the Army. Headscarf restrictions were lifted in 2013 by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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Unlike the 1990s, when the subject provoked lively debate, no political movement today proposes its ban in Turkey. “We have had mistakes in the past about the veil. (…) It is time to leave this question behind us and stop hanging on the lips of politicians”, even launched at the beginning of October the leader of the main opposition party, CHP (Republican People’s Party), Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

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According to observers, Kemal Kilicdaroglu would have wanted to show conservative voters – traditionally voting for the AKP, the party of Recep Tayyip Erdogan – that they had nothing to fear in the event of a change of power.

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Faced with this attempt to recover the votes of the conservatives, Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded in early October by calling on his opponent to make a constitutional change on this subject. “Is there discrimination against the veiled or not veiled today in the public service? In schools ? No. (…) We have achieved this, ”said the Turkish president on Saturday. “We will soon send the amendment to the Constitution to Parliament. (…) But if this cannot be resolved in Parliament, let us submit it to the people,” he added.