Turkey’s secular establishment and its Islamic-leaning government have long quarreled fiercely over weighty issues such as the appointment of Islamic-minded officials and the role of the military in politics. But nothing has inflamed passions quite as much as a debate over a simple item of clothing.Secularist horror at the idea a woman who wears a Muslim headscarf might enter the presidential palace that was once home to modern Turkey’s revered — and decidedly secular — founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is at the heart of a battle over the presidential ambitions of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.Gul seems set to fulfill his dream of becoming president as parliament heads into a decisive vote on Tuesday on his nomination in which the ruling party needs only a simple majority to secure his victory.Gul’s wife, Hayrunnisa, has been wearing the hijab, the Muslim headscarf covering the head and neck, since her teens, and was a leading campaigner for women’s right to wear the scarf. The head covering, many believe, is mandated by Islam.Secularists view the headscarf — banned in government offices and schools — as a challenge to the modern path Ataturk set for Turkey.They fear that any move to relax the headscarf ban would undermine secularism.They scoff at the notion a woman clad in an Islamic garment might represent a secular nation that is vying for European Union membership. And they remember how Hayrunnisa Gul once appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for the right to wear the headscarf to a university and fear she will subject the presidency to Islamic influence.“It gives me pain that she will be living at Cankaya,” said Ayse Nur Cubukcu, a manicurist, in reference to the presidential palace.
