Turkey is one of those countries where reaction against the ambivalent consequences of modernization assumed the form of identity politics, and where an Islamist movement pushed the Muslim woman's “covered identity” to the center of the debates surrounding secularism, modernization, and Westernization.

In the mid-1980s when civil society began to flourish in Turkey, Islamist women's groups also took their place among the numerous civil initiatives. Although part of a general Islamist movement that was an outlet to express political dissatisf…