Passport photos and official hijabs

During my time in Turkey, headscarves were always in the news, and it seemed that all of my friends outside of Turkey wanted to talk about them.  Can you wear them in public buildings?  Can you wear them in universities?  Turkish newspapers were always finding new ways to talk about headscarves.  Which universities are allowing students to wear headscarves?  Who is wearing headscarves?  Headscarf dedikodu:  Who's wives are wearing headscarves?  Who wears a headscarf now who (gasp) didn't used to?  How much are women paid to wear headscarves?  Which businesses pay women to wear headscarves?  Much like the minaret in Switzerland, the headscarf in Turkey became shorthand for the country's culture wars, and fodder for hastily written essays and opinion pieces of many an Erasmus student and foreign journalist.

The issue has now opened for discussion in Ukraine.  The Ukrainian constitution guarantees its citizens freedom of religion, but Muslim women are not allowed to be photographed for official identification with hijabs, or headscarves.  This January, a young woman, 25 year old Susanna Ismailova of Bakhchisaray, Crimea, applied for a new passport photo.  When she was unable to be photographed with her hijab, she opened a suit in Kyiv.  It is said that nearly 1,000 Muslim women from throughout Ukraine (not only Crimean Tatar women) have signed a petition for the right to wear a hijab in official photos.

I was unable to find much on this issue in English - the story seems to have been picked up mostly by news organizations focusing on Muslim issues (see here).  Seems to be a bit of a hotter news item in the Turkish press (here, here, here).  Some related videos (RUS):

A news report on the issue, including a brief interview with Susanna Ismailova:

 A discussion among a group of Crimean Muslim women on the issue, including Susanna Ismailova (very long).




Is this lawsuit now a main focus among Crimean Tatars?  Crimean Tatar Muslims, like many post-Soviet Muslims, are often considered not very strict.  While I couldn't make a guess about percentages, I rarely see Crimean Tatar women wearing a hijab.  This is not to say that none do, it is just a comment for my readers outside Ukraine who aren't familiar with the issue.  While researching this news item, I came across this paper (which happens to be written by an acquaintance of mine here in Crimea who is going to the US next year on a Fulbright grant).  She explains Crimean Muslims as follows:

Crimean Muslims are unique – there are very strict believers who do not eat pork and moderate Muslims, who eat pork and joke that they asked God for forgiveness before eating it. There are Muslims who wear headscarves and those who openly state that they hate people in headscarves, and argue that it is an Arabic custom that is inappropriate for Crimean Tatars who are secular. There are those who pray daily and those who do not understand what praying is for. You can find those who fast only for several days and then give up, and those who fast during Ramadan plus additionally several times a month. For some Muslims Islamic traditions are alive only at weddings and funerals, for others Islam is a daily routine. Nevertheless, all described above types of people consider themselves Muslims, they call themselves proudly Muslims, and those who are still single, want to get married only to Muslims.

Sometimes one single family can consist of strict believers and moderate Muslims.

So although there are Crimean Tatars at the front of this fight, and the issue is being characterized in the news as a Crimean Tatar issue, it seems safe to say it is not a cause all Ukrainian Muslims would prioritize.  Here is an excerpt (my translation) of an interview with Safinar Cemileva, founder of the League of Crimean Tatar Women and wife of Mustafa Cemiloglu, the leader of the Mejlis, or Crimean Tatar Parliament.  The entire interview can be found in Russian from the Ukrainian newsource Day (RUS).

By the way, now there is a movement unfolding arguing not only that Muslim women always wore the hijab, but that they should be allowed to be photographed for their passports in a hijab.  Is there such a problem?

This is not typical, this is a sect.  Look at the jewelery Crimean Tatar women wear - gold, silver, filigree!  Who would close all that splender in a hijab so no none could see it?  On the contrary, Crimean Tatar women proudly display their collection of earrings, rings, bracelets.  We are proud of our seamstresses, jewelers and goldsmiths.  Our girls and women have always worn small fezes, hats, small scarves and shawls.  Simply our women don't dress provocatively, like sometimes happens in some cultures, and this shows our adherence to the Koran.  Our government and our people have always been secular, and not religiously fanatic.  When we arrived in Uzbekistan, we were struck by the custom of wearing the veil, and the passivity of Uzbek women and how they are closed from society. For us it was wild.  Crimean Islam has never been like that.  I remember my grandmother. She had a small kerchief, she prayed, she read the Koran, and she would take it off and fold it neatly.  She never dressed with her body exposed, but she also was not too closed.  Everything was very neat, without excess.

While I don't think either of the two authors above would advocate such a statement, I suppose some will point to this case as an example of "Islamic fundamentalism" in Crimea.  There are so many perspectives on this story - like many issues in Ukraine.  This is why I've so enjoyed learning more about this country.  No news item is as straightforward as you might first imagine.  Writing this post also makes me even more excited to read Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia, which Nicholas just brought back for me from his trip to New York.  Also would like to read Why the French don't like headscarves:  Islam, the State, and public space.