Women Wearing Headscarves in Turkey Rise: Poll
--More women wear headscarves today in Muslim-majority secular Turkey than they did four years ago, a survey published yesterday showed.
The poll, conducted among 5,289 people in September by the Konda polling institute for the liberal daily Milliyet, showed that the number of women who cover their hair increased to 69.4 per cent this year from 64.2 per cent in 2003.
Among women who cover up, those who wear the Islamic-style headscarf, which has heavy political connotations, jumped from 3.5 per cent to 16.2 per cent in the past four years, the survey showed.
Since November 2002, Turkey has been governed by the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), which advocates broader religious freedoms and the abolition of restrictions on wearing the headscraf.
The survey found that wearers of the head-to-toe chador increased only slightly to 1.3 per cent this year from 1.2 per cent in 2003, while the number of women who wear a simple traditional head covering dropped from 59.5 per cent to 51.9 per cent.
The number of women who do not cover their hair dropped from 35.8 per cent to 30.6 per cent in the past four years, it said.
The poll estimated that about 14 million women in a country of more than 70 million cover their hair and that about two million of them wear the Islamic-style headscarf.
Tarhan Erdem, who heads Konda, a respected polling institute, said the results do not signal an anti-Western or anti-modernization trend in Turkey, but highlight a need to protect traditional values and religious beliefs in the face of modernization.
The headcarf represents "a loyalty to traditional values, refuge from the dangers of modernity", Erdem wrote in Milliyet.
The Konda survey contradicted a similar one released in November 2006 by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), an independent think-tank.
Source:AFP
Among women who cover up, those who wear the Islamic-style headscarf, which has heavy political connotations, jumped from 3.5 per cent to 16.2 per cent in the past four years, the survey showed.
Since November 2002, Turkey has been governed by the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), which advocates broader religious freedoms and the abolition of restrictions on wearing the headscraf.
The survey found that wearers of the head-to-toe chador increased only slightly to 1.3 per cent this year from 1.2 per cent in 2003, while the number of women who wear a simple traditional head covering dropped from 59.5 per cent to 51.9 per cent.
The number of women who do not cover their hair dropped from 35.8 per cent to 30.6 per cent in the past four years, it said.
The poll estimated that about 14 million women in a country of more than 70 million cover their hair and that about two million of them wear the Islamic-style headscarf.
Tarhan Erdem, who heads Konda, a respected polling institute, said the results do not signal an anti-Western or anti-modernization trend in Turkey, but highlight a need to protect traditional values and religious beliefs in the face of modernization.
The headcarf represents "a loyalty to traditional values, refuge from the dangers of modernity", Erdem wrote in Milliyet.
The Konda survey contradicted a similar one released in November 2006 by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), an independent think-tank.
Source:AFP
