Oztig, Lacin Idil --- "The Turkish Constitutional Court rulings on the headscarf: the construction of villains and victims" [2019] ELECD 2588; in Sandberg, Russell; Doe, Norman; Kane, Bronach; Roberts, Caroline (eds), "Research Handbook on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Law and Religion" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 404

Book Title: Research Handbook on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Law and Religion

Editor(s): Sandberg, Russell; Doe, Norman; Kane, Bronach; Roberts, Caroline

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 20

Section Title: The Turkish Constitutional Court rulings on the headscarf: the construction of villains and victims

Author(s): Öztığ, Laçin İdil

Number of pages: 16

Abstract/Description:

This chapter explores a means by which comparative work can be done. It employs a critical constructivist approach, maintaining that meanings are socially constructed and essentially contested, to provide a narrative analysis of how identities, threat perception and meanings attributed to objects are interwoven. It explores as a case study the puzzle of the Turkish Constitutional Court’s referral to laicism as the justification for decisions which the author deems contradictory, exploring how the Court employed different narratives in justifying the ban on, and ultimately the liberalization of, the headscarf.