Charshafs in Mersin

Following a recent post about hijabs in Ukraine, I thought I would share this news from Turkey.  Earlier this month in the Turkish city of Mersin, in honor of the 86th anniversary of the removal of the Caliphate, nearly 100 women from one of Turkey's leading political parties (CHP) gathered.  And then they ripped up some black charshafs.

Photos from Radikal

Aside from the photos, what I found most interesting about this article was the debate in the comments by the site's users.

user "rightous" says:  

Bravo to the bright women of the CHP...contemporary women...modern women...women after Ataturk...what can I say to you...I see you and I'm with you...if you weren't here, we'd be like Iran!  I'm sure if Ataturk saw this in the year 2010 he'd smile at you.  Or maybe it would depress him...actually should you laugh or cry at this situation...

user cankan says:

No to the charshaf!  Because the charsaf means the end of the the value of the Republic and Ataturk.  The Charshaf means a dark future.  Let's leave our children not to the darkness of the charshaf, but to a bright future.

But user Nihat Erkan says:

Is Kemalism like this? When you insensitively go and rip up a çarşaf in order to thought our thoughts and opinions in a sack in order to advance some far away quarrel, the most valued principles of society are on the individual citizen, like the sword of Damocles it swings and weakens our position. [Nihat said a bit more but I had difficulty translating the entirety of his comments]

user "shakanozdemir" says:

But going this far is shameful (ayıp).  What have you ripped up?  Even if you haven't liked it, one part of the whole is valuable.  What you have stamped upon is not just a peice of cloth, but at the same time the potential of the CHP.  Take this photograph, look at is carefully and then ask - why don't we come to our potential?  You've found the answer, haven't you?

Haylemdeman:

Everything for a vote...remember that during elections every citizen is a [voting] citizen.

User mustafam1:  

The charshaf isn't like the turban! Didn't CHP just last year hold a "charshaf opening" and with a ceremony make women in charshafs from the suburbs members of the party?  This means it isn't the charshaf that's bothering the CHP.  They came out against the turban for because it was used for a "political" reason. By this reasoning do they believe that the charshaf is also being used for a "political" reason?  If tomorrow women wearing charshafs (çarşafılılar) go out onto the street as a reaction to the actions of these "progressive" women and begin to cut up skirts, women's suits and pants, what will happen?  In my opinion, they didn't get caught up with turbans because they are small, but they can get caught up in the charshaf and they still haven't gotten out of it, god willing (inşallah) the people will be freed from this!

I hate to be too second wave-y, but after seeing these images I had the urge to google "bra-burning 1960s," and found this image from 1968.  Do you think women of CHP took some inspiration from that strategy?

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.