I am a Muslim. I wore a headscarf for nine years. And I am fed up with headscarves.

I’m fed up that every conversation about Muslim women begins and ends with headscarves. I’m fed up that secularists and Islamists alike are obsessed with headscarves. I’m fed up that the fights between the two sides always take place over women’s heads – literally and figuratively. Women rarely get a say in such arguments – just their hair and what’s on it is deemed more important.

Of course it was ridiculous to prohibit women from wearing headscarves on Turkish university campuses. How awful that women had to choose between an education and what they believed was a religious requirement. Many of those women would wear wigs on campus as an attempt at reconciliation.

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