Abstract:

The present study focuses on the impact of the headscarf (hijab) ban, which has been imposed in Turkey for many years, on women in the public sphere. In this regard, freedom of religion and conscience is addressed within the scope of the public sphere, and some of the resolutions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on religious symbols are discussed. To avoid repetition in the face of the alignment between the decisions of the ECtHR and the previous decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Council of State regarding religious symbols, we focused on the decisions of the ECtHR. However, since the Turkish legal system has a regulation different from the reasons for the restriction of freedom of religion and conscience in international and regional texts, we addressed the title of "Legal Appearance of Freedom in Turkey" to the extent required by the topic of this study. The main point emphasizes in the present study is the lack of this Constitutional protective foundation of freedom of religion and conscience in Turkey. It is a lack of clear supreme norms that are not conducive to discussion and different interpretations, preventing the possibility of returning to a situation where women wearing headscarves are taken out of the political, social, cultural, and economic sphere with the implementation of the regulations, circulars, and communique to be issued. Since the ECtHR avoids interfering in the states regarding the headscarf, it does not protect freedom as much as expected. Addressing the consequences of the headscarf ban only from the perspective that it violates freedom of religion and conscience, however, overlooks the fact that women are excluded from the public sphere. To better understand the negative consequences of the ban, ECtHR decisions are examined together with the concepts of the public sphere-private sphere in this study.

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