Northern Cyprus protests against allowing the veil in schools
The veil was banned in secondary schools in Northern Cyprus until the authorities, aligned with Turkey, lifted the restriction.
Image of the protesters
Associated Press News
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According to the agency Associated Press, Thousands of people demonstrated on Friday 2 May in North Nicosia to protest against the authorities' decision to allow the Islamic veil in secondary schools.. So far, The education system in the Turkish part of Cyprus had a clear rule: no religious symbols in classrooms. But the recent decision to revoke this rule has been interpreted as an attempt by Turkey to impose political Islam on a society that, For decades, it has defended laicism as an identity trait.
The protesters, with placards such as «»It will not happen« and »Cyprus will remain secular", They denounce that behind the regulatory change there is a «social engineering» strategy. Elma Eylem, president of the secondary school teachers“ union KTOEÖS.“This is not a question of individual freedom — he said — but a deliberate attempt by the Turkish Islamist AKP party to control our society through the bodies of girls.”.
Northern Cyprus is Muslim, but secular.
Although the majority of Turkish Cypriots identify culturally as Muslims, Northern Cyprus has historically been one of the most secular territories in the Islamic world.. This attitude is due to several factors: the secular legacy of Turkey's Kemalist reforms, British influence during the colonial period, and a distinct identity that is often set against Ankara's authoritarianism.
Turkish Cypriot society has sought to maintain a clear separation between religion and public institutions, especially the school. The introduction of the veil in classrooms upsets this balance and raises alarm among many quarters that fear losing their cultural and political autonomy in the face of Turkish interference.
Growing tension between secularism and political Islam
The protest on 2 May is not the only expression of social unrest generated by the introduction of the veil in schools. Days earlier, The Department of Religious Affairs of Northern Cyprus suspended an imam for saying that those who oppose the veil are “infidels.”. In the same social media post, he warned that he would not conduct funeral services for anyone who did not accept the veil.
This attack was directed against the KTOEÖS teachers' union., the same person who has led the mobilisations in defence of the secular school. Damar's statements sparked an avalanche of public criticism, and the island's religious authorities, under intense pressure, responded by launching a disciplinary investigation and temporarily suspending the imam from his duties.
This episode shows just how far The imposition of the veil is not perceived as a simple symbolic measure, but as an organised offensive that uses religion as an instrument of political and social control.. The secular sectors of Northern Cyprus have made it clear that they do not intend to yield.
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