Religion

Ninety-nine percent Muslim, Turkey has officially been a secular society since the republic was established. This means no one is forced to participate in religious observances and Islamic attire is not permitted in government buildings. Until recently, there was a class dimension to religion in which the observants were considered uneducated villagers while the cosmopolitan urban middle class took great pride in their secular lifestyle. In particular, educated secular women typically express either contempt or bewilderment toward their counterparts who don head scarves. As long as women who wear head scarves filled low-status service sector jobs, however, they were not seen as a threat to the status quo. The two groups did not socialize, in large part because they had little in common. This has changed; there is now a visible urban middle class comprised of observant Muslims who adhere to the Islamic dress code in public. Women who wear head scarves in public are forced to endure taunts like “Go back to Iran” in places such as upscale shopping areas, where they did not formerly tread.