Women from diverse social, economic and political backgrounds are working to tackle different obstacles on the road to gender equality in Turkey. Sunday´s Zaman spoke with women´s activists from across the board to find out if the fierce debates over the place of Islam in secular Turkey were reflected in the form of conflicts among those working to promote a women´s rights movement here. Their responses were revealing: While the diversity of social and political opinion among these women and women´s organizations is apparent, there is an atmosphere of respect and recognition, despite the lack of extensive cooperation. Even as they work in different groups and prioritize different agenda items, they acknowledge the value of one another´s contribution to women´s status in Turkey. Some are going a step further and working to bring women from all walks of life together under one banner.

Generally speaking, there is no cooperation across groups of religiously inclined and secular women, Canan Güllü, president of the Federation of Turkish Women´s Associations (TKDF) based in Ankara, told Sunday´s Zaman. Her organization does not accept the division between "religious" and "secular" women´s groups, but she asserted that some religious women were attempting to "politicize" women´s issues by prioritizing the headscarf issue. "We do not accept politics into our civil society [organizations]. We are walking on the road of modernity laid out by Atatürk," she said.

More: http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=158212

**********

Do I read it wrong or is it true that most of the - in the article - mentioned womens groups are secular?