Regimes of un/veiling and body control: Turkish students wearing wigs

Kejanlioĝlu D. B., TAŞ O.

Social Anthropology, cilt.17, sa.4, ss.424-438, 2009 (Scopus) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 17 Sayı: 4
  • Basım Tarihi: 2009
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1111/j.1469-8676.2009.00083.x
  • Dergi Adı: Social Anthropology
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.424-438
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Ban on headscarf, Muslim students, Turkey, Un/veiling regimes, Wig-wearing experience
  • Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Wearing headscarves in universities has been forbidden in Turkey for several years. The implementation of this ban is based on the Higher Education Council's regulations on 'preventing ideological and political polarisations among university students'. Muslim students with headscarves have found a way around this exclusionary enforcement: wearing wigs. This bodily performance itself creates a contradictory practice, a novel form of veiling turns out to be another form of exhibition/representation. In this paper, we investigate Muslim students' interpretations of wig-wearing practice through in-depth interviews conducted both in Turkey and in Northern Cyprus. © 2009 European Association of Social Anthropologists.