BY FIKRET BILA
MILLIYET- A survey carried out for Milliyet by Konda Research, led by Taha Erdem, called, `Religion in daily life, secularism and headscarves' has yielded remarkable results.
According to the survey, over the last four years more women have started covering their heads, rising from 64.2 percent to 69.4 percent. In addition, the usage of more religious-style headscarves ballooned from 3.5 percent to 16.2 percent.
According to Erdem, the main reason for the 5 percent increase in women covering their heads is the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule, and a party holding the power with this culture is an important factor in that increase.
`The AKP is a party established by people with this culture,' said Erdem. `They haven't hidden this. In the past, leaders didn't do their namaz in the presence of cameras. Today, we see leaders go to namaz on Fridays. Their going to namaz can be seen on TV in any case.'
There are other examples of ways that the ruling party encourages head covering. It's clear that the AKP uses headscarves as a criterion for their public appointments. All the men appointed to high-level positions have wives who cover their heads. This is also true of lower-level staff.
If Konda or another reliable polling group were to study public servants, more remarkable results could be seen.
What percentage of public servants have wives who cover their heads?
What percentage of public servants support public servants being able to cover their heads?
What percentage of public servants at the administrative level have wives who cover their heads?
What percentage of high-level bureaucrats have wives who cover their heads?
Such a study would show the actual influence of the ruling party.
It would be a mistake to see this influence as limited to only AKP rule. Similar trends have been seen among the AKP's predecessors.
We should keep in mind that the rise in women covering their heads and favoring the right of civil servants to cover their heads depends not only on the influence of being in power, but also years of systematic organizational efforts. On the one hand, young people who are targeted for high-level posts in the future are being educated in the schools of private religious communities. And secondly, the young people trained in these schools have been hired by certain civil organizations not only for the last four years, but for years before the AKP even come to power.
For this reason, a study of public organizations could yield even more striking results than one among civilians.
Of course, headscarves aren't the only indicator. Male public servants' views of religion, secularism and headscarves can't be gauged by their external appearance. The important thing is their mentality.
If university girls get the right to wear headscarves, the next issue will be the same thing for public servants.