The Turkish Constitutional Court, laicism and the headscarf issue

What is it about?

From 1989 onwards, the Turkish Constitutional Court justified the headscarf ban in universities by citing laicism. Interestingly, in 2014, the Court found the headscarf ban in courts unconstitutional and revoked it by again citing laicism as the main reason. How can this seemingly paradoxical practice be explained? This article traces the trajectory of the headscarf issue in Turkey by analysing and contextualising the Constitutional Court decisions. In order to explain how and why the Constitutional Court issued two opposing views of the headscarf ban, this article focuses on the changing political climate and legal developments that took place in Turkey between 2008 and 2014.

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Why is it important?

The contribution of the article to the scholarly literature is twofold. First, this article contributes to the broader discussions on secularism by analysing the practical implications of the discursive transformation of secularism. More specifically, it shows how different interpretations of laicist forms of secularism are instrumental in the introduction and the removal of the headscarf ban. Second, this article makes a novel contribution to the literature on Turkish politics. This is the first systematic analysis of the shifts in Turkey’s headscarf policy by examining the Constitutional Court decisions.