The History of Sex: Istanbul -- Could Turkey Lead the Way on Women's Rights? -- (Chap. II, Pt. 9)

But what I really came here to find out is this: could Atatürk's Republic serve as a role model for Muslims around the world in the way that the Ottoman Empire was the self-styled Caliphate of Islam?

Binding East and West, could the Republic's alchemy of Islam and secular democracy provide a magical solution to culture-clash issues such as women's rights in Muslim communities?

The religious and the secular in Istanbul

To spare you the suspense, the answer is 'no'—or at least, 'probably not'—and it's naïve of me to even ask.

Despite reformist attempts by moderate Muslims, Turkey has enough problems of its own without having to worry about setting an example for all of Islam.

What's more, Islamic tradition varies immensely from country to country, and plenty of Westernized Turks will tell you they're a breed apart from the 'dirty Arabs' of the Middle East.

Likewise, Saudi Arabia and Iran view Turkey as a bad influence—thanks to Atatürk, their womenfolk also started agitating for rights—so they've pumped millions into building mosques in the Republic to stir up fundamentalism.

FLOUTING THE LAW

That's partly why you see more veils and headscarves in Istanbul these days than you would have in 1926 and why the pro-Islamist government has repeatedly tried to reverse some of Turkey's most progressive laws.

During the recent redrafting of the constitution, for instance, a clause ensuring equality was ditched in favor of one characterizing women as vulnerable souls in need of special protection: a sacrilege to the secularism of Atatürk, but completely in keeping with Islamic tradition.

Despite the argument that Islam is feminist in theory, in practice it's hardly ever turned out that way.

In Sexuality in Islam, Abdelwahab Bouhdiba—a sociology professor at the University of Tunis and an advisor to the UN—notes that polygamy and concubinage inherently devalued wives, making it impossible for women to be treated as equals.

Meanwhile, Muslim families routinely flouted Islamic law by disinheriting their daughters or forcing them to marry cousins to keep their resources within the clan.