Word: secularist
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...raised questions about the role of women in this predominantly Muslim society. "We always knew that the AKP wanted to lift the ban on headscarves, but democracy is as much about style as it is about institutions. It would be better if [Prime Minister Erdogan] was less dismissive of secularist concerns in this country," Hakan Altinay, head of the Open Society Institute, a pro-democracy group in Istanbul, told TIME. Lifting the ban may be a good idea, he said, but should be combined with a broader effort to liberalize other parts of the constitution, including Turkey's draconian speech...
...been widely criticized as excessive while also serving as a useful rallying cry for conservative Muslims. Any change would not take place before next spring, at the earliest, but the call forms part of a broader challenge by the current government and its supporters to Turkey's secularist status quo. Speaking to reporters, Erdogan said that the university boards that prevent women in headscarves from studying had no place in students' wardrobes. "It's about freedoms," he said...
...Some traditional secularists disagree, however, doubting whether lifting the ban is wise. "I used to be in favor of allowing headscarves in universities," Ertugrul Ozkok, editor in chief of the influential Hurriyet daily wrote today. "But after the [July 22] elections I have my doubts. Can we be sure that women in Anatolian universities will be able to resist the social pressure to cover up?" The editor, whose newspaper has traditionally supported secularist laws, said he was worried about vigilantes singling out women who did not cover their hair...
...Western commentators often hold up Turkey as a model of democracy and capitalism in the Muslim world. That role as an exemplar is not one that many Turks particularly want, arguing that Turkey's history, geography and secularist traditions - the very things that have helped bind it tightly to the West - are unique among Muslim nations. Regardless, Gul's election doesn't threaten those achievements; it confirms them. Turkey's economy is closely linked to the world. Now there are grounds for thinking that its political system, too, is becoming more deeply rooted in modern, democratic ideals...
...presidency heralds the start of a new era for Turkey, it's far from clear what that new era is going to hold. "Is this the beginning of a new period of compromise, or the start of secularist-Islamist strife?" wrote columnist Mehmet Ali Birand. A former foreign minister, Gul is widely known as a coalition builder who played a key role in Turkey's European Union membership bid, but his background in political Islam makes him unpalatable to secularists...