“You Won’t Walk Alone”: Online Feminist Testimony and Transforming Subjectivities of Veiling

Abstract

Throughout the 1990s, women’s Islamic headcover (hijab or headscarf) has been subject to restrictions in public offices, leading to faith and gender discrimination in Turkey. In the last two decades, the visibility of Islam in politics and the public sphere has increased, leading to the resolution of the “headscarf ban” in 2013. Since then, discussions about veiling have moved from the official sphere to the cultural sphere. In recent years, there has been a growing tendency among a new generation of conservative women to problematise veiling. In this regard, this article analyses the digital activism of “You Won't Walk Alone,” which was founded in July 2018 as a platform aiming to give visibility to women who experience forced veiling. Through a thematic analysis of ten different testimonies, this article argues that the activism transforms the cultural meaning of veiling and challenges hegemonic religious body politics by facilitating feminist witnessing.