Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
CEN/ Duygu Akın
A young Muslim woman studying physiotherapy has been bombarded with abuse from Islamic conservatives after sharing exercises online to help people in lockdown.
Student Duygu Akin posted the videos online as part of her work at the Sakarya University Physiotherapy Department which is one of the largest universities in Turkey with more than 85,000 students.
But she is currently not studying at the University campus located in the city of Serdivan, the capital of the Turkish province of Sakarya, and instead is confined to studying from home.
While there, she decided to share these videos, hoping to help others to stay fit with the hashtag #EvdeHareketsizKalma (Don’t Stay Home Inactive).
But the young woman, whose age was not given, angered many people on social media who said the idea of a woman doing inappropriate exercises while wearing a headscarf was an offence against the “headscarf liberation struggle”, and that what she was doing was in direct contradiction with any of the traditional “values” of Islam.
One cruel commentator said that the hijab had not suffered so much abuse since 28th February (a reference to the decision in 1997 when headscarves were banned).
Another asked: “I can’t understand why you’re behaving like this? What perspective or belief can normalise this sort of behaviour?”
The wearing of the headscarf remains controversial in Turkey. which officially is a secular state which makes it neutral on the subject of religion, despite the fact that 95 percent of the country are Muslims.
Attempts to have the ban lifted have been strongly opposed by those in the country who see it as an attempt to create an Islamic state, and they opposed Turkish Erdogan’s pledge in his 2007 election campaign to have the ban lifted.
The protests were successful when the Constitutional Court in 2008 in a ruling regarded as final insured the ban on headscarf’s remains on the statute books because it is enshrined in the constitution.
In response to the criticism of her exercising, she posted a message saying: “I am studying physiotherapy. Exercise videos were my homework and I had to share them on Twitter.”
She added: “I’m not ashamed of the exercise video I shot. Its aim was to demonstrate simple exercises that the public could do. I would like to thank everyone who supported me, did not leave me alone against these nasty comments, and understood my purpose without any attempts at manipulation.”
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