BY GUNGOR URAS
MILLIYET- After constitutional changes to allow students to wear headscarves at universities are passed, the headscarf issue won't end, but actually get worse. Right now the public believes that if girls barred due to their headscarves could enter universities, their problem of education and debates over the controversial headscarf issue would end. According to a recent study by Bogazici University's Binnaz Toprak and Sabanci University's Ersin Kalaycioglu, one girl out of 10 can't attend university due to her wearing a headscarf. About 10.5 of 100 girls who don't attend university do so due to family opposition, 29.8 due to failure to pass the university entrance exam, and 14.6 due to getting married instead. Others don't attend university as they have to work (14 percent) or because their families lack the financial means (6.3 percent).
When students wearing headscarves were able to attend university, before the late `80s, there were at most four to six students wearing headscarves in courses of 80-120 students. The number of students donning wigs as a substitute for headscarves hasn't changed since headscarves were banned. There were still four to six girls in courses wearing wigs. I always try to follow what these journalism or public relations students do after graduation. I don't see my former students wearing wigs or headscarves in big cities like Istanbul, Ankara or Izmir. I've come across a few of them while traveling in Anatolia, where they work for local TV stations, newspapers or local industrial and commercial institutions.
I raise this issue for an important reason. The problem won't end when the university headscarf ban is lifted. When their university education comes to an end, the problem is only beginning. What will happen when girls wearing headscarves graduate from university? (1) Will they take off their headscarves? (2) Will they stay home, as job opportunities are limited for girls wearing headscarves? (3) Will they wait to be allowed to work at any institution?
When the university headscarf ban is lifted, it will be allowed not only for female students, but also for professors and teachers. Then women using headscarves will be able to teach, for example, at medical schools, law schools and political science faculties. So the first open door in the public service for girls wearing headscarves who graduate from universities will be teaching at university. But this isn't enough. Will a law school graduate who wears a headscarf not be able to become a judge or public prosecutor? As they have the right to vote and run for office, won't they be able to become a mayor or deputy? If not, there will be a problem. So proposals to lift the headscarf ban in all sorts of public services will immediately be raised. People, who say this won't happen are either deceiving themselves or others.