Women wearing headscarves in Beyoglu, Istanbul

When Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, began his mission to secularize the country in the 1920s and ’30s, one of the first things he abolished was the headscarf, a piece of fabric worn mostly by Islamic women to cover their hair.

Since then, the headscarf has been a controversial political symbol of the tensions between Turkey’s secular and Islamic communities. Until very recently, wearing the headscarf was banned in all public offices and in public universities. Religious female students were forced to wear wigs over their headscarves in order to attend class. Others with the means left Turkey to study in foreign universities.

In February 2008, President Abdullah Gül, the first former Islamist president in Turkey’s history, sparked public outcry by lifting the headscarf ban. Secularists worried that the new policy would bring Turkey closer in line with its Middle Eastern neighbors and jeopardize the country’s efforts to join the European Union. Gül, whose own wife wears a headscarf, defended his position to critics, saying in an interview with the Turkish Daily Press that the Constitution “guarantees the basic human rights including the right to dress as one pleases.”

Beyoglu, Istanbul

In the streets of Beyoglu, one of Istanbul’s trendiest districts, it seems that the controversy has calmed, at least for now. On a recent visit, I saw women in tight jeans and revealing tops sharing the streets with women in the more traditional tesettür style of dress, which usually consists of a full-length skirt and a lightweight trench coat. Those who chose to wear the headscarf did it with pride.