How Can There be Any Pressure to Wear the Headscarf While Nobody is Forced to Pray or Fast?
We have been witnessing bitterly that some people are trying to politicize the headscarf issue and get ignorant people with no religious knowledge involved in the debate.
Unfortunately, some segments of society are extremely hostile toward religion, and they take advantage of every single opportunity.
And what they are doing now is using the headscarf as a pretext to pave the way for a full-scale conflict, thereby crippling the relative stability our country has recently attained. Our country cannot afford a fight at the moment. In particular, those who have devoted themselves to the love of God and to working for the nation's welfare cannot have anything to do with conflict and cannot condone fights and conflicts. Or, this is the way it should be. Even when they find themselves in the middle of an unrelenting fight, they should resort to peace and moderation. The Holy Quran tells believers that even during a war "if the other party resorts to peaceful ways, so must you and put your trust in God!" Religion and politics are separated in our country, which is a secular state of law. I cited the Quranic adjudication as an extra piece of information; however, the condition our country is in and our common interests, as well as reason and logic, necessitate that we follow this path without fail, because fighting renders the person devoid of their rational mind, rational feeling and reasoning. Imr'u-l Kays, a poet of the Age of Ignorance, the era before Prophet Muhammad, says, "When you start two things, they will never stop where you want them to: A fire and a fight." Therefore we should preserve our calmness.
Headscarf a clear and open command of Islam
Wearing a headscarf is not among the conditions of faith that constitute the quintessence of Islam, nor among the five pillars; however it is a clear and open command cited in the Quran. Its obligatory nature (namely its being a fardh) is undisputed in the primary sources of Islam -- the Quran and practices of the Prophet -- as well as in the practices observed throughout the 14 centuries of Islam. In the 24th chapter of the Quran, called "An-Nur" (The Light), God orders believing women, in the 31st verse, to cover their hair, neck and bosom in a way leaving no part of them visible. Also, in the 59th verse of the 33rd chapter, called "Al-Ahzab" (The Allies), the Prophet's wives are particularly addressed in addition to the believing women and are told to "cast their outer garments over their persons when out of doors." As is obvious in all practices observed in the history of Islam, believing women are ordered to cover all their bodies with the exception of the face, the hands and the feet. Bear in mind that the blessed wives of the Prophet are "the mothers of believers" (Quran 33:6) and therefore it was made unlawful for them to marry anybody else after the passing of the Prophet. The order to cover the entire head with the exception of the face is undisputed not only because it is mentioned in the Quran, but also due to its unquestionably obligatory nature being apparent in all the practices of the Prophet and in the history of Islam. There have never been any Quranic exegetes, hadith narrators or jurisprudents who have put forward any different or opposing idea on the issue, throughout the 14 centuries.
Today, there are some professors from schools of divinity who -- maybe for the sake of endearing themselves to certain people or with some ostentatious purposes in mind -- show the temerity to claim that covering the hair is not a Quranic command. However, the Quran's order on this issue is so self-evident that not one single Quranic exegete has made a statement in opposition of this throughout history. The opposition of a few of today's professors based on different interests is of no value at all given that this Quranic injunction has been practiced by all Muslim generations for 14 centuries with common consent and unanimous adoption in addition to the verification of tens of thousands of exegetes, hadith narrators and jurisprudents who handed down the religion from one generation to the next after the time of the Prophet and his companions. This being the religious foundation of the matter, trying to establish it as a practice stemming from different sources and motives by giving it various names and putting forward utterly arbitrary and strange claims which are at odds with one another is preposterous and nonsensical. There may be people who can be against the wearing of it based on personal considerations; however, nobody has the right to claim that it is an un-Islamic practice. While the simplest cases are referred to experts as a necessity of common sense and science, nobody can put forward arbitrary judgments on God's religion, which conveys to us what He wants us to do and refrain from. At best this means being irrational and unscientific, alluding to one's ignorance and dauntlessness. We have the Religious Affairs Directorate in charge of, as the name implies, organizing all religious affairs, and we have the Higher Council of Religious Affairs working under the directorate. They are experts on all these issues and are authorized to make binding statements.
Another dimension of this issue is this: Those who are normally supposed to make contributions to the country's scientific and technical development oppose the headscarf on the grounds that universities are scientific places that religion and faith cannot enter. How unfortunate it is that this is said by people who allegedly prioritize science. They are probably unaware of the contradictory and fallacious nature of their argument. As a result of long-standing conflicts in the West, science and religion were separated, and Descartes determined which areas were to fall under the roof of science and which belonged to religion. This is the current mindset adopted at our universities, whereas such separation doesn't exist in our belief system as Muslims nor in the way we approach science nor in our history. Science and religion are two different expressions of the same meaning. One of them has been seen as the light of the mind while other as the light of the heart. Therefore we have a magnificent scientific history that laid the groundwork for the Renaissance to take place in the West. Tens of thousands of our scientists, such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Zehravi, Biruni, Harizmi and Ibn Haysam, who forged brilliant legacies and left indelible marks in the world of science, were very devoted Muslims, and most of them were Sufis. Religion and science have always been inextricably intertwined with each other and have never been perceived as being in conflict with each other. Therefore, claiming that a practicing and devoted Muslim or a headscarved student cannot engage in scientific activities or cannot become a scientist and seeing the headscarf as a thing that prevents universities from being home to science are attitudes that don't befit a true scientist. Moreover, we all know that many Western scientists, such as Galileo, Newton and Laplace, were not against religion; some of them were even seriously devoted to their religion. How would you classify Arthur Stanley Eddington? If you consider dealing in science and being a religious person as two opposing things, you oppose Einstein, one of the zeniths of the world of science, while rendering science lame and religion blind.
Thirdly, such an attitude is also against secularism. Secularism's foundation is the prevention of religion from interfering in state affairs and the prevention of the state from interfering in religious affairs. It consists of the principle of the state securing religious freedom. Therefore a headscarved daughter of ours studying with her headscarf in the university doesn't do any harm to secularism, republic or democracy. Just the opposite, it strengthens them. Our daughters consider wearing the headscarf as a religious duty to be a necessity of secularism, republic and democracy, and they rightly locate this practice within the boundaries of the freedoms of religion, conscience, thought and expression, which are all protected by secularism, republic and democracy. And those aspiring to solve this problem approach the matter from this perspective. So our daughters don't cover their heads to oppose secularism, republic or democracy; and likewise, those sincerely seeking a solution are not doing so to oppose these three.
In a sense, one should be able to openly say that he is against the headscarf for whatever reason; he should be able to do this in a civilized manner without contradicting himself, drawing the country into an atmosphere of conflict, or staging unbecoming protests. He should be able to prove why the headscarf should not be worn by presenting rational, logical, intellectual and scientific proof. Otherwise, the current protests, the attempts to draw the country into an atmosphere of conflict, threats of staging a military coup, all sorts of other threats, unbecoming remarks and aspirations to go back to the days of revolution are nothing but the expression of intellectual and scientific incapacity.
Those who say there will be pressure may cause provocation
At this point I would like to give an important warning regarding this topic. Up until now, even though it is more religiously imperative than the headscarf, there has been no pressure applied to people to perform their prayers. Notwithstanding a few questionable news pieces, there was no pressure put on people to fast during the month of Ramadan. Those who have performed pilgrimage (the hajj) haven't threatened those who have not done so. Despite the fact that numerous negative broadcasts are made regarding the sacrifice of an animal for Eid ul-Adha each year, no one pointed a finger at those who chose not to partake in the sacrificial aspect of the holiday. Putting all of this aside, religiously devout people have never done anything but deliver advice to those who choose to consume alcohol, gamble and partake in other acts considered sinful in Islam. There was never an unpleasant event that took place in the schools that our covered daughters could attend with their covering. Our daughters who don't cover don't even consider that there may be problems arising from now on, either. When this is the portrait of our current reality, when it is the religious members of society who are victimized from time to time, asserting that the lifting of the headscarf ban will apply a certain pressure on those who choose not to, only brings about the possibility of a provocation.
If the headscarf regulation is passed by Parliament -- whose decision it is to accept or reject this law, while the final approval lies in the hands of the president -- and our daughters win the right to receive an education with their headscarves on, serious provocations could take place. In certain places men -- put up to a mission -- could be dressed in chadors, while women, in the same way, could be made to wear the headscarf, purposely bothering women who choose not to with their words or actions. I am extremely concerned about this possibility, and I believe that our government, particularly those who bear responsibility for this matter, should demonstrate the utmost of care in regard to this matter.
We must all act with a rational mind
It is imperative that we -- as a nation bearing the legacy of a history which underlies certain cultures of Asia, Africa and the Balkans, at a time when we are maintaining consistent development and doors are being opened to us in many fields -- discuss our problems in a civilized fashion, acting in accordance with our nation's best interests. The only method which will be of gain to us all will be such. Otherwise, we will have done another great wrong to our country. We see that the centers of terror -- against whom we have been waging a battle for years, losing tens and thousands of martyrs in the process, on whom we have expended a large amount of the nation's wealth in the process, and have got the international public on our side in our fight against them -- are also concerned about the possibility of freedom for the headscarf. They are afraid that this freedom will take away the support of the people, distancing the people of the southeastern region from this terrorist organization. Therefore we, everyone in a position of authority and as a nation, are obliged to act with rational thought, emotion and logic.
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