False Sense of Maturity

Everywhere I look this week, I keep seeing stories about the Muslim head scarf, and this story is no exception. In Turkey, it appears that wearing the head scarf is a national form of teen rebellion:

So at 16, she did something none of her friends had done: She put on an Islamic head scarf.

In most Muslim countries, that would be a nonevent. In Turkey, it was a rebellion. Turkey has built its modern identity on secularism. Women on billboards do not wear scarves. The scarves are banned in schools and universities. So Ms. Yilmaz dropped out of school. Her parents were angry. Her classmates stopped calling her.

Like many young people at a time of religious revival across the Muslim world, Ms. Yilmaz, now 21, is more observant than her parents. Her mother wears a scarf, but cannot read the Koran in Arabic. They do not pray five times a day. The habits were typical for their generation — Turks who moved from the countryside during industrialization.

“Before I decided to cover, I knew who I was not,” Ms. Yilmaz said, sitting in a leafy Ottoman-era courtyard. “After I covered, I finally knew who I was.”

While her decision was in some ways a recognizable act of youthful rebellion, in Turkey her personal choices are part of a paradox at the heart of the country’s modern identity.

A rebellious teen in a different country might get a piercing or a tattoo, which would have a negligible effect on society. However, when a Turkish teenager decides to tick off their parents by embracing an Islamic ritual like wearing a head scarf, they are participating in a cultural battle over the future of the country. Let’s hope there are good parents in Turkey; it might actually help keep the country democratic.