News:

For the first time in Turkey’s political history, 21 female deputies took parliamentary oaths while wearing headscarves. 18 of these deputies were elected from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) lists, while three others were elected from Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP).

Today, Ravza Kavakçı Kan, Justice and Development Party’s Istanbul deputy, took her parliamentary oath with the very same headscarf that her older sister Merve Kavakçı was wearing when she was forcefully prevented from taking her oath in 1999, banned from practicing politics and later stripped of her citizenship.

---

 

Comment:

Some are celebrating this day as kicking off a new term in Turkey’s parliament. However it is not what is on the heads of the deputies – which was a frequently used slogan by headscarf victims during the past times under the headscarf ban – but what is in the heads that makes changes.

This parliament is still the same parliament with the same unpredictable, volatile, contradictory and confused form of governance, where rights and laws are subject to the whims of those who define them. So taking part in the governance of a system that defends the separation of worldly affairs from the intervention of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, or moreover even fights the authority of Allah سبحانه وتعالى is surely not an improvement, even though one is allowed to wear a headscarf there. It is the same system that dismisses the laws of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. It is the same system that allows alcohol, riba, extramarital relationships as democratic freedoms; that seeks to represent women under the values of secular capitalism through gender equality and liberal values, that utilizes women as tools of production within the capitalist economic system. It is the same system that produced inhumane values that led to the horrific numbers of violence against women and femicides. And this is the same system that dictates nationalistic values under the dominance of capitalist world powers which prevent the Muslims of this country from taking true actions against the enemies of its Muslim brothers and sisters in Syria and elsewhere. It is the same system that nurtures this parliament which produces Muslim deputies and ministers who make secret reconciliation meetings which Israel

No! Being able to take part in the Kufr system of democracy with or without hijab might be a change for the deputies themselves, but it is surely not a change for the Ummah! This participation has always and will always turn those who enter its doors in mere servants of this system. So if our brothers and sisters in the Turkish parliament who dress themselves as representatives of the Muslim women and men in this country are honest in working for the interests of this Ummah, then they must embrace the way of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He ﷺ refused to take part in any form of non-Islamic rule:

«والله لو وضعوا الشمس في يميني، والقمر في يساري على أن أترك هذا الأمر حتى يظهره الله ، أو أهلك فيه ، ما تركته»

“By Allah! If they were to place the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left hand in order to abandon this mission, I would not do so until it has been well established or I would perish in my attempt to do so.”

As such, the governance of the Khilafah Rashidah upon the method of Prophethood is the only system that not just ‘tolerates’ Islamic values and behaviours, but rather it is the only system that ensures the implementation of every single rule of Allah سبحانه وتعالى in every single aspect of life. At the same time this Islamic system of governance ensures that those who actively take part in its political life remain faithful to their Islamic values. And Islamic values like the wearing of a headscarf are reflected out of its nature. At the same time this noble system also ensures respect and protection for non-Muslim citizens in their daily lives and worship – and not only according its own political interests, but as a strict command from Allah سبحانه وتعالى! – And without forcing them to fight for their rights.

وَضَرَبَ اللّهُ مَثَلاً رَّجُلَيْنِ أَحَدُهُمَا أَبْكَمُ لاَ يَقْدِرُ عَلَىَ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ كَلٌّ عَلَى مَوْلاهُ أَيْنَمَا يُوَجِّههُّ لاَ يَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ هَلْ يَسْتَوِي هُوَ وَمَن يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَهُوَ عَلَى صِرَاطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ

“And Allah presents an example of two men, one of them dumb and unable to do a thing, while he is a burden to his guardian. Wherever he directs him, he brings no good. Is he equal to one who commands justice, while he is on a straight path?”

(an-Nahl 76)

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Zehra Malik