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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Tried for linking headscarf to sex |
| 2006-10-19 |
| An eminent 92-year-old Turkish archeologist is to go on trial for inciting religious hatred because she angered Islamist circles with a scientific paper saying the use of headscarves by women dated back to pre-Islamic sexual rites. Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, who devoted her career to studying the Sumerians, the first known urban civilisation (dating from the 4th millennium BC), was to appear in court on November 1 in Istanbul, her editor, Ismet Ogutucu, said. In a book published last year, Cig says the headscarf - a controversial issue in Turkey - was first worn by Sumerian priestesses initiating young people into sex, but without prostituting themselves. A lawyer from the western city of Izmir took offence and filed a complaint against Cig, resulting in a prosecutor charging both her and her publisher with "inciting hatred based on religious differences". If convicted, the two face up to three years in jail. Cig, a staunch defender of mainly Muslim Turkey's strictly secular political system, recently wrote to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife, Emine, calling on her to discard her Islamic headscarf and set an example to young people. "She can wear whatever she likes at home, but as the wife of the Prime Minister, she cannot wear a cross or the headscarf," Cig said in an interview this week in the popular daily Vatan. The Islamic-style headscarf is viewed by secular Turks as a symbol of political Islam and is banned by law in public offices and universities. The issue has polarised Turkish society, particularly since Mr Erdogan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party swept to power in 2002 with an end to the headscarf ban high on its list of electoral promises - one it has so far been unable to keep. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #5 Anybody got the low down on the practice? The article pins it Sumerian, which is pre Islam? Is it cultural, religious, ottoman empire traditional? Dunno, here is an article from FaithFreedom, which deals with the issue |
| Posted by: tipper 2006-10-19 22:30 |
| #4 a good headscarf acts like a bridle and reins, doggy style.... jeebus, 92 yrs old and they go after her? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-10-19 21:27 |
| #3 I haven't followed all the details, but there certainly is evidence that headcoverings predate Islam. For instance, the headpiece of traditional Christian nuns' habits go back to the headdresses that women habitually wore in the middle east when Christianity and monasticism were new there. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-10-19 20:58 |
| #2 This is interesting. (other than women being treated like chattel which should be on the front page of the NYT) Anybody got the low down on the practice? The article pins it Sumerian, which is pre Islam? Is it cultural, religious, ottoman empire traditional? Dunno. |
| Posted by: Dunno 2006-10-19 20:48 |
| #1 Beginning to think islam is more of a psychosis than cult. Psychotic cult, maybe. The schizo's make the bombs. |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-10-19 20:42 |