Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy (president of France) said NO to wearing Burqa in public. He says when women wear it for cultural and religious reasons, “they are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity”. I agree with his statement. If you want to live in a developed society, you need to obey its rules. In most Islamic countries Muslim women are oppressed by men. Lately, Iranian women are taking risks and going to streets to protest. Some have died, some are injured, some have been beaten but at least they are trying. In order get your rights, you have to to fight for them.

In western cultures, women fought a long time to get their rights. Let’s face it, rights do not show up at your doorstep. You have to get them, earn them and protect them. If you do not protect them, you may loose them sooner than you think. History shows that freedom is never given, it is earned.

Islamic countries do not have gender equality. Women wear veil, burqa, chador, hijab, all kinds of material to cover themselves, to show servitude to God. How come only women have to cover themselves but not men? Can men show their loyalty to God without covering up? If so, why not women? It seems like there is a logical error here. If God sees everything, above everything, can comprehend everything, (by definition God contains all these attributes). By wearing a turban, or burqa is irrelevant of your true actions. If you are faithful, behaving in good manner all the time, your clothing is not important. God must be able to see your true face. If you are liar, cheater, unfaithful, it does not matter, you wear burqa or not, you are still a bad person. God is able to see that too. Forcing women covering up might bring these results, as we see often in Islamic countries:

  • They have less education (most girls taking out of school in early age)
  • Most women stay at home, do not work
  • They do not have enough representation in government
  • Islamic countries’ laws in favor of men than women
  • Women can be punish heavily for sexual crimes
  • Women are forced to arranged marriages
  • Islamic communities do not punish heavily  “honor killings”
  • In some Islamic countries have female genital mutilation
  • Domestic violence against women are common
  • Women are excluded from social public life
  • Women get unequal treatment at work

This list can go much longer. If you are a woman and like to be equal to a man, then fight for your right. Covering yourself will not only cover your face/head, will put you behind men. Wake up, your identity should not be only piece of clothing.
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Segregation always brings problem, never resolves any issue. When you segregate women in the society, practically you are putting women behind the men, then they became second class citizens.  It does not matter what is the reason. It can be religious, tradition, or customs, the result will be the same. Turkey is the only secular country which is 99% Muslim. According to law,  men and women are equal. If we look at the history, even though men and woman are equal, in practice we see women do not make history in Turkey! Last 15 years  (as if light Islam model) Islamic party is ruling the country. During all these years, they were only interested in trying to give right to women to cover themselves with Turban. Whatever the odd reason, they do not care rest of women rights, period. Did you know only 22% (university graduated) of women work in Turkey? Somehow some naive people believe that giving rights to wearing headscarf (turban) will make girls go to university more. Really, is that so? Let’s give facts, in Turkey girls even graduated from a university, majority of them, sit at home, without working. So, it is a nice facade that government like to put on the table as a serious issue time to time. In Turkey only %4.4 women in Parliament. According to Global Gender Gap Report in 2008, Turkey is ranked 123rd in the attempt to close the gender gap between men and women among 130 countries worldwide. in 1990, %33 women were working.  In 1995 that number fell to %24.3 and in 2007 it became %22.2. For more information you can click on this link and read sexuality and human rights in Muslim societies.  In my opinion women in Turkey do not do history, maybe because, they did not fight for it much.  Ataturk gave equality rights to women that women can vote and can be elected. It is about time to fight for your rights, rather than trying to cover your head with piece of scarf that only makes you second class citizen rather than pious. Reality in Turkey, women still far behind being equal. Women in Turkey need to understand the situation better, before ruling party gives you nice headscarf to cover your eyes!

I support women who like to have a voice, like to be free, believe in equality.
For my contribution, I created turban photoshop brushes.
Girls out there, download it, use it, share it with others. Women in Iran, I hope you can change the history.

Turban Brush Set:
Download here : turban.abr 18 brush

Preview 1.8mb
Turban brush set contains veil, burqa, turban, hijab, men wearing headscarves, women say NO to turban, and gender inequality.
Use it freely, share it, and support women rights!

NIQAP: The niqab is a veil for the face that leaves the area around the eyes clear.
CHADOR: The chador, worn by Iranian women when outside the house, is a full-body cloak. It is often accompanied by a smaller headscarf underneath.
HiJAB: In Arabic hijab means veil and is used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women.
TURBAN: A headscarf, that covers all the hair, leaves the face open, tightly knotted right underneath of the chin.
BURQA/BURKA: It is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some traditions for the purpose of cloaking the entire body.