The SETA Foundation at Washington D.C. presents  

"Headscarf Ban and Labor Discrimination in Turkey"

with  

The headscarf ban in institutions of higher education in Turkey remains a highly debated and politicized issue. Most analyses have not focused on the impact of the ban on headscarved women's lives. While there has been considerable focus on the public sector ban on headscarves experiences of these women in the workplace have largely been ignored. What is the impact of the ban on the professional lives of headscarved women with higher education? What obstacles were placed before them to enter the job market and advance in their careers? Join us for a discussion on these issues with Dilek Cindoglu and Merve Kavakci Islam.  

*A limited number of Dr. Cindoglu's recent report, "Headscarf Ban and Discrimination: Professional Headscarved Women in the Labor Market" will be available for participants, courtesy of TESEV Publications.

*Light lunch will be served.

Dilek Cindoglu, Ph.D.,is a Visiting Senior Scholar at the IRWAG of the Columbia University and Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Political Science, Bilkent University, Ankara. She received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo (1991), M.A (1986) and B.A (1983) from Bogazici University, Istanbul. She works on gendered processes of politics, labor markets, migration, health and sexuality. She received Direct Access to the Muslim Worldaward from the Fulbright Visiting Specialist Program (2006), was a visiting fellow at the Center for Gender and Sexuality at New York University (2003), and Senior Fellow at the St.Antony's College, Oxford (2002), as an Honorary Fellow and Fulbright scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center of University of Wisconsin at Madison (1998-1999). She worked as consultant on various projects funded by various donors including The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, IDRC of Canada, Ford Foundation, World Bank, ILO-IPEC, EU, published in Turkish and international journals and in edited books. She is an elected board member of the Turkish Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association. Dr. Cindoglu's related reseach on the theme was recently published as a report titled "Headscarf Ban And Discrimination: Professional Headscarved Women In The Labor Market" by TESEV Publications.

Merve Kavakci Islam, Ph.D., is a Lecturer of International Relations at George Washington University. She holds a Ph.D in political science from Howard University, an MPA from Harvard University and a B.S. in software engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas. She was elected to the Turkish Parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in 1999. However she was prevented from serving her term by the secularists because she wears a headscarf. Kavakci's political party was closed down and her Turkish citizenship was revoked, banning her from politics for a period of five years. She took her case to European Court of Human Rights and won in 2007. Kavakci is recognized among the World's Most Influential 500 Muslims. She was recognized among "Women of Excellence" by NAACP and GWU in 2004. She was awarded the Public Service Award in Tribute and in Recognition of efforts for the advancement of human rights and Muslim Women's empowerment by International Association for Women and Children in 2000. She was awarded Service to Humanity Award by Haus Der Kulturellen Aktivitat und Toleranz in Vienna, Austria in 1999. She was granted Mother of the Year Award by Capital Platform of Ankara and National Youth Organization in 1999. Kavakci is a consultant for US Congress on the Muslim world and a columnist for Turkish daily Yeni Akit newspaper. She sits at the Editorial Board of Mediterranean Quarterly. She is the author of Headscarf Politics in Turkey: A Postcolonial Reading and five other books some of which are translated to Arabic and Persian.