The Headscarf Issue

Abstract

This chapter aims to illustrate the discourses and practices of accommodation of cultural diversity in Turkey with a special focus on the ban on the headscarf in institutions of higher education. To put it differently, this chapter seeks to understand the meaning of tolerance shaped by particular actors and groups in a specific political context. For this purpose, this chapter investigates public policies and political initiatives proposed for the resolution of cultural diversity challenges with respect to tolerance/respect/recognition vis-á-vis the headscarf in higher-education institutions.