and building up a rapport.
We established we had a mutual dislike of Trump and I asked them to explain how Turkey's historic and once popular secularism was now gone and how the country got so divided.
They said that the secular politicians went to far in the secularism and Turkish women were not even allowed to wear a head scarf in many public places. Hijabs in Turkey are often colourful scarves and very fashionable, not similar to the chador in the middle East.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headscarf_rights_in_Turkey#/media/File:Headscarfalanya.jpg
I was stunned to find that in fact the current situation is directly related mass demonstrations for and against permitting (not requiring) university students the right to wear a modest hijab.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headscarf_rights_in_Turkey
Prime Minister Erdoğan campaigned in his victorious 2007 campaign with a promise of lifting the longstanding ban on headscarves in public institutions. However, as the Turkish deputies voted in Parliament, tens of thousands protested outside in favour of the ban.[22]
On February 7, 2008, the Turkish Parliament passed an amendment to the constitution, allowing women to wear the headscarf in Turkish universities, arguing that many women would not seek an education if they could not wear the head scarf. The main political party, the Justice and Development Party and a key opposition party, the Nationalist Movement Party claimed that it was an issue of human rights and freedoms.[23][24][25][26] The Parliament voted 403-107 (a majority of 79 per cent) in favour of the first amendment, which was inserted into the constitution stating that everyone has the right to equal treatment from state institutions. However the move resulted in opposition throughout Turkey. The country's educational board and numerous universities vowed to defy the new law. In addition, the main pro-secular, opposition party of the Republican People's Party asked the constitutional court to block the new law passed, and viewed it is a move towards an Islamic state.[27] Thousands of demonstrators supporting the ban also gathered near the Parliament against the move by the government.[28]
My friends stated that when the secularists became so inflexible on the issue that the moderate middle of Turkey started moving more and more to Erdogan as an expression of freedom whether or not they chose to wear the hijab themselves. My friends didn't wear a hijab.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism_in_Turkey
This article explains the problem where 60% of the women are polled in favour of wearing the hijab but that they face discrimination if they wear it.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-12-20/turkeys-fraught-history-headscarves
It is a tragic and completely avoidable conflict.
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