Choice of dress in public more of an issue in Turkey then the headscarf: Survey
After the main opposition leader in Turkey proposed a legislation to secure women's right to wear Islamic headscarf in public work places, and The Turkish President raised the bid by proposing to secure it through a constitutional amendment, a Turkish polling company conducted a twin survey asking whether or not the people thought it was still an issue to be resolved, and also if the women in Turkey felt secure in the street with the way they were dressed.
Only 8% of the participants said in one of the surveys that they believed the Islamic headscarf was still an unresolved issue, while 90.1% said it was no more an issue. 1.9% said they did not have an idea, or chose not to respond to the question.
Of those who stated that they were using Islamic headscarf, a mere 9% said it was still an issue.
While 9% of the participants who declared support for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said it was an issue, a notably lower 4.9% among the supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the ardent supporter of the freedom to wear the headscarf, said it was no longer an issue.
37.6% of all participants said in response to another question that CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu's proposal for a new legislation was sensible, while 55.7% said it was not.
In another survey, participants were asked it they felt insecure with their dresses in public.
While 26.1% said that they felt insecure because of the way they were dressed, 72.4% said they did not feel insecure.
The affirmative replies have been concentrated among the supporters of three opposition parties:
47.3% of the supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said they felt insecure, as 44% of CHP supporters, and 38.1% of the Good Party's supporters said they did.
Only 12.5% of AKP supporters said they felt insecure in their dresses.
Both polls were conducted between 15-18 October with the participation of 2,145 people in Turkey's 28 provinces.
