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Turkey
Turkey is a Muslim-majority country with a secular state and a rich religious history. Islam arrived with the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century, and its influence deepened...
Turkey is a Muslim-majority country with a secular state and a rich religious history. Islam arrived with the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century, and its influence deepened...
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EVENTS (56)
PUBLICATIONS (86)
Report of the Georgetown Symposium on Religious Freedom and Religious Extremism: Lessons from the Arab Spring
September 1, 2012
September 1, 2012
INTERVIEWS (84)
A Discussion with Ambassador Ochieng Adala, Executive Director of Africa Peace Forum in Nairobi, Kenya
July 14, 2010
July 14, 2010
A Discussion with Robert A. Seiple, First US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom
October 29, 2009
October 29, 2009
LETTERS (73)
POSTS (17)
RELATED RESOURCES: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the Headscarf Ban in an Interview with Der Spiegel
April 16, 2007
ERDOGAN: [Headscarves] should also be an expression of religious freedom.
DER SPIEGEL: [...] Turkey strictly forbids headscarves in schools, universities, and government offices. Your wife Emine is not invited to receptions of the current President Sezer.
ERDOGAN: Many women, including my wife, experience injustice. Before we came to power, women wearing headscarves also went to the president, including the current president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Then we won the election, however, and he did not invite us. There is no legal basis for such discrimination.
DER SPIEGEL: Did you not promise your religious voters that you would relax the ban on headscarves?
ERDOGAN: No, for me that is not a question of votes but of freedom. I said that we need consensus between the people in the society and the public institutions. Only then can we overcome the problem. My own daughters, who wear headscarves, could not study in Turkey for this reason. They went to the United States.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has served as Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003, having been re-elected in 2007 and 2011. Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul in 1994 while representing the Islam-oriented Welfare Party (WP). He garnered popular support...
DER SPIEGEL: [...] Turkey strictly forbids headscarves in schools, universities, and government offices. Your wife Emine is not invited to receptions of the current President Sezer.
ERDOGAN: Many women, including my wife, experience injustice. Before we came to power, women wearing headscarves also went to the president, including the current president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Then we won the election, however, and he did not invite us. There is no legal basis for such discrimination.
DER SPIEGEL: Did you not promise your religious voters that you would relax the ban on headscarves?
ERDOGAN: No, for me that is not a question of votes but of freedom. I said that we need consensus between the people in the society and the public institutions. Only then can we overcome the problem. My own daughters, who wear headscarves, could not study in Turkey for this reason. They went to the United States.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has served as Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003, having been re-elected in 2007 and 2011. Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul in 1994 while representing the Islam-oriented Welfare Party (WP). He garnered popular support...