A WOMAN DIYANET INSIDER'S VIEWS ON ISLAM,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 005584 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/25/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON KWMN TU SUBJECT: A WOMAN DIYANET INSIDER'S VIEWS ON ISLAM, HEADSCARF AND WOMEN IN TURKEY REF: A. 05 ANKARA 2030 ¶B. ANKARA 4199 Classified By: Political Counselor Janice G. Weiner for Reasons 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Ayse Sucu, President of the Women's Auxiliary Board of the Turkish government's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) Foundation, told us that the government was using the Diyanet to secure Turkey's image as a secular country. Sucu claimed the Diyanet was a male-operated institution with very few women among its 80,000 employees and none in leadership positions, with most female employees working as teachers or instructors of the Quran to other females. Sucu said she opened the Women's Auxiliary Board in 1996 as a way to provide a female perspective within the Institution, but also as a counter-point to religious societies in Turkey beyond the Diyanet, such as cemaats (lodges) and tarikats (brotherhoods),that are traditionally male-dominated (ref B). Sucu said that, while the Diyanet Directorate does not run the Diyanet Foundation directly, the Foundation had the largest endowment in Turkey. She claimed the 5000-member Women's Auxiliary Board provided vocational, cultural, and charitable services. End Summary. -------------- - HEADSCARF THE "MOST SENSITIVE ISSUE IN TURKEY" -------------- - ¶2. (C) Sucu characterized the headscarf issue as the most sensitive question in Turkey today. She said the headscarf would not be so important if women were interpreting the Quran correctly. Sucu stressed these were her personal opinions and noted women's and men's clothing styles came from tradition and geography, not religion alone. She enumerated three reasons why women choose the headscarf in Turkey: 1) a sense of duty as a religious person, 2) fear of expulsion from society and a sense of shame, and 3) family pressure or family tradition. ¶3. (C) The Quran brought discipline to clothes and the "Nur" chapter on women's attire offered some guidelines, she said, but this was specific to Prophet's time. (Note: Verses 30-31 in Chapter 24 (Nur) of the Quran provide the primary basis for most justifications for wearing the headscarf. End note.) Sucu claimed the issue of whether or not these verses instruct continuation of covering the head was open to interpretation today, as women in the Prophet's time were 
wearing headscarves prior to the Quran. Sucu said that, as with most issues in religion, a male perspective defined the headscarf issue. She said there were more progressive currents in religious interpretation in the past and quoted a late 19th century thinker who said, "If anything should be covered, it should be men's eyes." Sucu stated that men cover women to protect themselves, not women. -------------- ADVOCATING WOMEN'S VOICE IN ISLAM -------------- ¶4. (C) According to Sucu, the great defect in the history of all three monotheistic religions was that they lacked female perspective. Sucu argued for a holistic approach to the Quran, which she claimed women did not interpret traditionally. She thought Islamic history did provide a woman's perspective, such as the anecdotes from Ayse, the Prophet Mohammed's second wife, but that her voice had been lost because only men had written and interpreted Islam. She also raised the issue of the lack of female perspectives in the Quranic interpretation of matters that pertain to women specifically, such as women's health and attire. She argued that if women were to interpret the Quran, there would be more emphasis on the emotional aspects and verses within the scripture, as well as on scriptural references to love and respect. She doubted if truth could be sought in the Quran if men constantly neglected women. It was impossible, in her view, to find the whole truth when one half, the women's voice, was missing. Sucu predicted that women's role in Islam would expand beyond what had been demands for women's equality into theology and politics. ANKARA 00005584 002 OF 002 -------------- TURKEY AS PART OF GLOBAL TREND -------------- ¶5. (C) Sucu characterized the increased religiosity in Turkey as a part of a growing world trend, which she said moved religion away from its essence and toward a focus on practice. She said that in Ottoman times there was more emphasis on spirituality, and that now conservative practice is more prevalent when it comes to views on women and their role in society throughout the world. -------------- -------------- MALE EMPATHY NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WOMEN'S PROGRESS -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) Women had come a long way in Turkey, Sucu acknowledged, but this was solely the result of women's efforts, not male sensitivity to women's issues. In previous meetings with us, she criticized specifically the male leadership of the Diyanet as not being interested in promoting women's equality. She also pointed out that Turkey had a higher percentage of women with PhD and college degrees than most countries in the region, but lagged behind Iran in the number of female representatives in government. She claimed the only way to promote women's social, economic or political position was through education and development of the broader society. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON