Elif Shafak reflects on the role of Turkish women

Turkish writer Elif Shafak analyses the difference between veiled and unveiled women. "In Turkey, the veil isn't considered an unimportant symbol. ... At first glance, it appears that an enormous mental, cultural and political gap separates Turkish women. However, when you look a little closer, this gap is only an illusion. In daily life, the two types of Turkish women are so intermingled that we think it ordinary. ... Pluralism isn't only a political principle, it's a principle that a free society applies to individuals, men as well as women. In Turkey, we have been asking ourselves for more than 150 years if Islam can coexist with Western democracy. After 150 years of Westernisation and modernisation, the answer that we have reached is a definitive 'yes'. Turkey is a complicated country, with many dilemmas. Women hold both the power to ease and to intensify its tensions."

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