Erdogan Plays Headscarf Card
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken up the cause of his "covered sisters" to deflect attention from his own policies toward both the protesters and women.
On June 11, nearly two weeks into the mass anti-government protests that were rocking Turkey, the country’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out against the demonstrators yet again. This time, in a fiery speech before lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
In addition to his well-worn tirades about the protesters being “hooligans” and agents of a global conspiracy, he spoke of the plight of a woman who covered her head Islamic style. The woman in question was the daughter-in-law of “one of my very important and close friends,” he told a rapt audience in parliament. “They dragged her on the streets near my office [in Istanbul] and attacked her and her child,” Erdogan thundered but gave no further details, thereby prompting a flurry of excited speculation.
