ABSTRACT

This chapter depicts the Islamic women's problem as it has been experienced in Turkey for 50 years, generally centered on the headscarf debate. The Kemalist reaction against the headscarf has caused religious groups to center on this symbol and to gain dynamism through that. This dynamism has also brought about several women and groups in the Islamic women's movement to question the traditional role of the Muslim woman. The prominent organizations formed by Islamic women can be grouped under two categories: those that serve in the area of aid and assistance, and those that are active in the political arena. The organizational process has, indeed, started with the former one. The Islamic women's movement has created an alternative manner of self-realization through a different and subjective identity and a system of values opposed to a standardizing, assimilative understanding of modernization that is closed to different manners of existence.