Let’s not discriminate between headscarved women

It is obviously very meaningful that those who until yesterday had been talking about the grievances of “our headscarved sisters” are now treating those who have gathered in front of daily Zaman as mere “step-sisters.”

But we should not exaggerate this meaningful situation...

Because the more we exaggerate, the more we give the impression that we pre-assume that there is a secret immunity shield for the headscarved sister and thus fall into the danger of accepting that all kinds of brutality are normal for those who do not wear a headscarf.

Perhaps what we need to do is this:

Without looking to see whether she wears a headscarf of not, support all our sisters that have been kicked, tear-gassed and pushed around.

Daily Zaman before and after Gülen ownership

Zaman did not belong to the Fettullah Gülen group when it first started publishing.

It was the most independent, original, interesting, different and anarchist newspaper in Islamic circles.

Nabi Avcı, who is currently Turkey’s education minister used to write by the pseudonym Enes Harman for the daily. Islamic feminism first came into being at the paper. For the first time a newspaper in Turkey had a page dedicated to the environment. It has been the subject of several academic works.

This beautiful dream which started in the second half of the 1980s ended quickly.

Something happened and the Fethullah Gülen brotherhood became the new owner of the paper by finding the money to buy it.

And then…

The youth of the Islamic circles, who read, wrote, thought and produced became orphans.

Those were the days!

The Boydak family

A columnist at Yeni Akit looked at what happened to the Boydaks and seems to have begun to panic. This is what he said:

“The Boydak group have declared that they had no relationship left with the Gülen group. If the Boydaks are being detained because of their old relations; this is wrong and terrible. If the relations prior to Dec. 17 [the date in 2013 of a graft operation blamed on Gülenists in the judiciary and police] were to be questioned, we could all be held accountable. Even Tayyip Erdoğan would be accountable.”

He’s right.

Don’t twist Bahçeli’s words

National Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli made a statement.

“The government should put forward its Plan B [if there is no consensus for a constitution].  This can only be possible through a referendum. For that, the number of parliamentarians required should be 330. If there is a referendum, the necessary contribution will be provided while taking into consideration the MHP’s sensitivities on the constitution.”

Looking at this statement, those in the government are rejoicing thinking, “Bahçeli will support us.”

Those on the opposition are criticizing him, saying he is again coming to the help of the AKP.

But the joy of those in the government is unnecessary and the staunch criticism of the opposition is unfair.

Because Bahçeli has a precondition and that is the MHP’s sensitivities on the constitution, and those sensitivities will mitigate the joy of those in the government.