LETTER FROM ISTANBUL

"I throw my hijab at the feet of the government and religious authorities": With this blunt statement, Turkish women's rights activist Berrin Sönmez unveiled herself in the summer of 2025. A practicing Muslim, journalist and historian living in Ankara, she had worn the headscarf for decades.

Her decision was a sign of protest − "a personal act of resistance," as she described it − following a controversial sermon delivered on August 1 during Friday prayers and broadcast in the 90,000 mosques affiliated with the Diyanet, the public body that oversees religious affairs in Turkey. She explained her gesture in a long, highly personal and well-argued piece published two days after the sermon on the news website Medyascope.

Reached by phone, Sönmez recalled that she had always promised herself to remove her hijab if it ever became mandatory. "Today, that threat is looming," she said. "By taking it off, I am telling them not to push further. A 64-year-old woman with white hair has thrown off her headscarf; think about it, understand the meaning of all this and turn back."

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