A research on the unveiling practices of women after 2015

This study aims to evaluate the unveiling practices of women after 2015 in sociological and political dimensions. In the literature, it is clear that the unveiling is evaluated as a liberation of the body. This research is based on that whether unveiling process and practice can be evaluated as a political practice from different perspectives or not. Also, this study aims to contribute to the literature by considering the aspects of political agency and political emancipation of the unveiling process in the context of women and body relations. This study's main claim is that to show the relation between practice of removing headscarf and to be perceived/labelled as AKP supporters who have headscarves but not AKP supporters. In this frame, it is claimed that the unveiling process can be interpreted as a political emancipation practice due to it has social and political background. In the field research part of the study, it is shown that the relation between unveiling choice and being perceived/labelled as AKP supporters by their own expression of women. In the first part of the study, the topic, purpose, and method of the research are evaluated. In the second part of the study, the headscarf is discussed in theoretical and conceptual contexts. A headscarf is argued in the context of unveiling, the liberation of the body, political emancipation, and these notions are discussed with the meaning for headscarfed women. In the third part, the headscarf and its socially constructed perception are evaluated considering the relation with the political sovereign since the Late Ottoman Era when initiated the modernization period until the AKP government in the political conjuncture of Turkish politics. In the fourth part, the headscarf approach of AKP, the lifting of the headscarf ban, and standpoint and mentality of AKP in the context actual political events. In the fifth part, through data that were collected in the field study, it is evaluated that unveiling motivation of women due to discomfort feeling in society because of their outlook is associated with an authoritarian identity of AKP. As a result, by sharing personal experiences of women, it is clear that women who removed their headscarves after 2015 described headscarf as a political representer and they removed the headscarf due to that they do not want to be labelled/perceived as AKP supporters. Keywords Headscarf, AKP, political salvation, authoritarianization