University ban on headscarves in secular Turkey and other issues.

[Paul Finkelman]

I think there is a certain sort of imperialism in Prof,. Sheridan's argument, implying that we in the US should judge Turkey by our standards.  Religious freedom in this country has developed in part by allowing fairly free (but never fully free) exercise.  In other nations (Mexico, France, Turkey) the history of religious oppression by the dominant group was so great that religious freedom could only be achieved by eliminating certain public displays of religious belief.  This may not as absurd as it seems to us.  Prof Sheridan has nice stories about Baptists churches helping people in need, and I am sure they are true.  But, I have also seen "prayer at the flagpole" (often by Baptists and other evangelicals) used to oppress, isolate, and discriminate against those  public school students who do not participate in the prayer at the flagpole.  Turkey lived with a very oppressive tyranny of the majority for centuries; it now tells the majority it may not do some things in public.  Different nations have different traditions and heritages.  To use another example (and I am not comparing Ottoman Turkey to Nazi Germany, I am only using the example), Germany, although a democracy and free country does not allow free speech for Nazis.  In the US we would not allow such restrictions; the Germans do because their history suggests a different route to democracy.  I would not want to import the German system or the Turkish system here, but I am reluctant to condemn it without a careful evaluation of the historical circumstances that led to the current rules. It may be the rules are antiquated and stupid -- sort of like the thoroughly undemocratic and absurd way the US allocates Senators or elects its presidents -- or it may be that the Turkish system is still necessary to maintain Democracy. 

Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
     and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York   12208-3494

518-445-3386 
pfink at albanylaw.edu
>>> Robert Sheridan <rs at robertsheridan.com> 02/09/08 9:01 PM >>>
Turkey went secular when re-constituted, under Kemal Ataturk, after  
the defeat and dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire in WWI.  As a  
result, Muslim women students who observe a religious desire or rule  
to cover their heads by wearing headscarves cannot attend university  
in Turkey.  Noah Feldman has an op-ed in today's NYT in which he  
discusses but doesn't offer to provide a solution to this difficulty, at

http://tinyurl.com/38qhlw

He notes that Prime Minister Erdogan's daughter attended university in  
the U.S. for this reason.  Here she may wear the scarf.

I know a Muslim woman who promised God during a difficult childbirth  
that if only things went well she'd always wear the headscarf.  This  
got her fired from her Christmas sales job at a large department store  
chain as well as an appearance on the TV news and an appointment with  
the EEOC.

The proponents of secularism in government anywhere including here  
seem to have unusual difficulty in distinguishing government as  
regulator from government as provider of other services, such as  
funding universities.

I have a friend who retired to Picayune, Mississippi, where Hurricane  
Katrina smote him and his neighbors sorely.  He was out of touch for  
weeks.  No communications, no power.  Local stores were closed.  What  
kept him and his neighbors alive was the local Baptist church, not any  
of the local, state, or federal agencies.  The church set up soup  
kitchens.  This has made me rethink any idea of absolute separation  
between church and state in an ideal world that doesn't exist.  It  
appears to me that, as in other areas, we need to carefully  
distinguish whether the ideal of separation applies to government's  
regulating power or to its support for helping to keep people alive,  
an important value to me.

In wondering why Turkey has difficulty distinguishing between  
secularism in lawmaking and a ban on headscarves in class, I wonder  
what I'm missing, about Turkey and about us.

rs
sfls














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