‘Don’t surrender your daughters to ISIL mentality,’ CHP leader tells mothers

Şükrü Küçükşahin BOLU

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu poses with two women during his visit to the Cooking and Tourism festival at Bolu's Mengen district, famous for its renowned chefs. AA Photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has slammed a recent government decision to allow schoolgirls to wear the headscarf, calling on mothers “not to surrender their daughters to ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] mentality.”

“The Justice and Development Party’s [AKP] ‘new Turkey’ is not only against the 81-year-old traditions of the Republic, but also defies the thousand-year accumulation of Islam in Anatolia and the tradition of Sufism in these lands,” Kılıçdaroğlu told Hürriyet in Bolu’s Mengen district on Sept. 27.  “We must say that this mentality is not local,” he added.

According to Kılıçdaroğlu, this “exported religion” has ties to organizations that are enemies to humankind, such as ISIL.

“Those who have turned Turkey into a country of bans and human rights violations present nine-year-old girls wearing headscarves as an issue of dress code freedom,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. “This is funny. A mentality that even has issues with the clothes of a TV host cannot talk about dress code freedom. No one will accept such hypocrisy.”

Kılıçdaroğlu said the CHP paved the way for headscarf freedom in Turkey. “It is everybody’s responsibility to fight the AKP’s mentality, which has carried discrimination and separatism to the primary schools,” he added.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu Sept. 29 defended the government’s move. "One of the first accomplishments of the 62nd government has been bringing headscarf freedom to middle schools in a way that will bury the headscarf ban in history,” Davutoğlu said in Samsun.

“This is our nation’s will and there is no going back from it,” he added. “We will not let anyone play with our citizens’ headscarves, and we will not let anyone violate the rights of those who do not cover their heads.”

On Kılıçdaroğlu’s criticism, the prime minister said, “The real ISIL mentality is within the CHP, which includes politicians who forced university students to take off their headscarves.”