ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
NPR's Ivan Watson has more from Istanbul.
IVAN WATSON: The rise of Islamist politicians appears to have frightened many urban middle-class Turkish women. Women with the organizers had made up the majority of the participants in a recent secularist street demonstration in Istanbul, which was attended by nearly a million protesters.
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WATSON: This university student named Nassan(ph) explains why she and her friends attended the rally.
NASSAN: My friends afraid. I afraid. The women around me afraid. We don't want Islamic president in Turkey.
WATSON: Professor Nur Serter was one of the organizers of the rally. She is the leader of an organization devoted to the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the secular Turkish Republic, and the general who launched the emancipation of Turkish women in 1925.
NUR SERTER: Women know very well that they will lose what they have been bestowed by Ataturk if an Islamic Party continues to rule the country.
WATSON: Serter claims Islam discriminates against women.
SERTER: You can see many examples when you look at Islamic countries, when you look at Iran or Afghanistan. As you see there, you cannot say that women have any power or even represented in the society.
WATSON: Serter distrusts Turkey's moderate Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She points out that Erdogan's wife, Emine, wears an Islamic headscarf, which Serter calls a symbol of oppression.
SERTER: Why? I have the same hair as the men do. Why is showing my hair a sin?
WATSON: Hava Ozjelik is one of the many women who wears a headscarf and long concealing coat while shopping in the market of a working-class Istanbul neighborhood. She's also a proud supporter of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
HAVA OZJELIK: (Through translator) I have religious beliefs and this is a Muslim country. We want to live as a Muslim country. We should - I'm not covering my head just because Recep Tayyip is a Muslim. I'm covering my head because I believe, you know, living this way.
WATSON: Despite the ban on headscarves, many young Turkish women continue to embrace Islamic dress, as was apparent at a recent Islamic women's fashion show in Istanbul.
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WATSON: Many of the fabrics displayed here were brightly colored and embroidered with sequence, as were the clothes of the young women sitting in the audience. This housewife named Emine Ertuk(ph), accompanied by her husband, came to the show dressed in a pink pastel headscarf, long skirt and jeans jacket.
EMINE ERTUK: (Through translator) I don't wear pants. I try to dress up in an Islamic style, which does not reveal my body.
WATSON: Predictably, Ertuk is a supporter of Erdogan, who has lobbied for easing the headscarf ban. She's also an admirer of the prime minister's wife.
ERTUK: (Through translator) She dresses beautifully. But just because she wears a headscarf, she isn't wanted in certain places. Why is it that if you show your hair you can go anywhere, but if you cover up, you can't?
WATSON: Ivan Watson, NPR News, Istanbul.
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