Understanding the Nexus of Religion, Secularism & Women’s Mandatory Un/Covering

• In Event: Religion and Violence

Abstract

Although they share a border, Iran and Turkey have vastly different political systems, policies governing religion, and substantially different policies towards women. This paper compares the economic and social effects on women of Iran and Turkey’s policies governing religion, especially their veiling policies, from 2008 to 2013. During this time, Turkey’s democratic, secular government mandated women’s unveiling in government buildings, military bases, and at all schools and universities while Iran’s theocratic government mandated veiling in all public spaces.

State policies mandated veiling have long been seen as harmful. But Longman and Bradley "raise the question...if bans on veiling and other forms of dress coverings, or ‘forced unveiling’, which by contrast have become the norm in a number of countries in Europe, but also Turkey, for example, could be seen as ‘harmful’” (2016, 54). Using data gathered from interviews and field notes in both Turkey and Iran, in this paper I argue the effects of both states’ policies on religion/secularism legitimized discrimination and harms against women based on their dress, reinforcing the patriarchal structures of government, state, and society through processes that subjugated women.

Author

• Sarah Fischer, Marymount University