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Turkish Cypriot contemporary education is under a major reactionary attack.
The universal rights of our children are being violated…
Today, if the most meaningful demonstration of recent years does not succeed, ‘political Islam’ will plant the flag of Sharia in a new fortress in this country.
The situation is very serious.
Two teachers’ unions are fighting one of the most honourable fights in the struggle they have been waging since 1968.
At stake are our children, our schools, the education system, the future of the country…
At this point, instead of dealing with ‘the middle men’, there is now a resistance against those who directly give the orders of the operation.
The AKP’s extensions here, its trolls, jerks and sycophants, who have been recognised by the unanimous decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Turkey as ‘the subjects of acts against secularism’, have openly started a reactionary war against modernity, secular education and children’s rights.
The reactionary siege of political Islam, which is progressing step by step with the familiar tactics of Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia, is about to envelop our children at secondary school age.
The UBP seems to have surrendered to this disgusting imposition. Ünal Üstel has become the plaything of the theologian and enemy of the Cypriots, Erhan Arıklı [Editor’s note: The president of YDP]. Üstel is under the pressure of his provocations and separatist harsh threats. It is not possible for him to think clearly.
Nazım Çavuşoğlu [Editor’s note: The Minister of Education in the North of Cyprus], who has turned into an ‘apparatus’ of AKP, has revealed that he surrendered to the imposition of ‘Sunni Islam’ as he used the expression, ‘in accordance with their religious beliefs’, while changing the bylaws.
This is an ignorant and foolish statement…
Even the AKP has not been so ‘obvious’ in the ‘Dress Code’ of schools in its own country.
In the ‘Regulation on Students’ Dress Code’, which is still being implemented in the Republic of Turkey, it is stated that “the head will be uncovered” for kindergarten and primary school students, while “the face will be uncovered” for secondary and high school students.
Our government, on the other hand, has pushed all the limits of sycophancy and cosying up to reactionaries.
Imagine a ‘minister’ who does not know a thing about what ‘pedagogy’ is…
It accepts to place a religious symbol on the head of a child under the age of 18, to cover it, just to be able to exist in politics…
So are the other MPs of UBP… So are the MPs of DP…
In UBP, only one female deputy had the courage to object to the disgrace of headscarf debates…
I wish İzlem Gürçağ all the power to resist to the end, not to bend and twist, and not to regret her move.
So, what did Mr. Tatar in the Palace, who was put in the office by AKP, say during this process?
“The headscarf is one’s own choice,” said the honourable one…
Undoubtedly, he was correct…
The headscarf is, of course, a personal preference…
You can either wear a scarf… Or, you can wrap your head with a muslin…
Whether you tie a sari, or wear a chadri…
Whether you wear a turban, a burqa, or a shawl…
No one can ask you, “Why did you wear that?”
In this country, Turkish Cypriots wore both the burqa and the headscarf…
But back in its time and in place…
For example, still, when the Mawlid is being recited, you will not see one woman with her head uncovered…
After 1974, there were serious changes in the ‘demographics’ of this country…
After 2003, on the other hand, we started to feel political Islam breath down our necks…
Political Islam has continuously gained ‘ground’ in this country, increasing its power and visibility…
The contemporary, modern appearance of Turkish Cypriot society is getting eroded by the day.
Today, it is women wearing headscarves who drive the most luxurious cars on the streets of Nicosia…
Although the Turkish Cypriots are unable to acknowledge this ‘occupation’ that has begun to leave a mark on our social fabric, they did not marginalise anyone…
Through various tactics, political Islam has gained new grounds in these lands…
The Quran courses are the most striking example of this…
First, the imams were taken by the police, investigations were launched, then bans and even arrests followed all of these…
Political Islam pretended to step back a little but in time it got mobilized, captured the local politicians as collaborators, and then legitimised the Quran Courses…
Campaigns were organised with the resources of Evqaf to give bicycles to children who prayed two rakats.
Mosques, minarets, masjids multiplied.
Today there are 1400 students in the Theological School, which also provides education in Arabic, although the country does not have the need for it…
Our schools were filled with religious teachers from the Republic of Turkey who did not hesitate to lynch Cypriots on social media.
This system has internalized dozens of backward-minded teachers who are now actively ‘writing’ for ‘trolls’…
The volume of electronic calls to prayer have been turned up to maximum…
We never had ‘headscarf’ fights in our universities…
In other words, the politicians of this country, both the right and the left, did not see any danger such as ‘Political Islam’ before…
Funnily, we even had socialist politicians who cut ribbons at the opening ceremonies of mosques, when they came to government, to show tolerance towards religious dynamics.
However, currently, the situation is completely different…
See what Prof. Dr. Levent Eraslan, President of the Social Media and Digital Security Education Research Centre, says:
“Uniform clothing reduces the visibility of socio-economic differences amongst students. This can prevent discrimination and bullying that may occur over clothing. By wearing the same outfit, students can experience a stronger sense of belonging to the school culture and community. This can encourage co-operation and team spirit.”
In short, even if we do not look at this issue from the perspective of values such as Kemalist education, or secularism, it is pedagogically treacherous to ‘cover the heads’ of children by interfering with their uniforms.
This article was first published on 07.07.2025.
Source: ‘COVERING THE HEADS’ OF CHILDREN IS A WAY OF BETRAYING AND VIOLATING THE SOCIETY…
