No flush of victory

This afternoon I was at the Istanbul office of the governing AK Party. I expected to see groups of people around televisions, watching the voting in parliament today on ‘the headscarf issue’. Today was the first round of voting on a proposal to change the constitution so that women with a scarf can no longer be denied access to university. Saturday is the second round of voting. In the office hallway , a television was switched on, but nobody was watching. “Why not”, I asked the woman I came to see, who was wearing a scarf herself. “Many women”, she said, “are done with this discussion and don’t want to hear anything about it anymore. I’m wearing a scarf, so what? Someone else has a moustache, some people wear jeans, others skirts. Let’s just grant each other the freedom to wear whatever we want and stop this endless discussion.” So, no flush of victory at the AK Party’s office. ‘The question’ will be settled now, and that’s it. Back to the order of the day.