In the previous chapter, my goal was to question the view that Islamic societies cannot be modern. Equally, however, we cannot see modernity in an Islamic society as simply a product of Islam. This is so precisely because modernity is a new phenomenon that requires an alteration of the existing socio-cultural world. The agency of modernity is important as well as the context. It is important to stress that, although Islam cannot be seen as incompatible with modernity, there is always conflict involved in the emergence and experience of modernity. And tensions between modernity and Islam have tended to be a central characteristic of twentieth-century Turkish history. More recently, the current socio-political system has faced an outright rejection on the part of political Islamism. Within these recent contestations, the ‘female question’ holds a prominent position, as can be seen not least in the fact that Islamist women appear as some of the most visible militants of the Islamist movement. In many respects, the ‘female question’ is indeed exemplary of the conflictual relations between Kemalist modernity and Islamism. This is so, as will be argued in this chapter, because some of Kemalist modernity's central transformations altered the role and position of women in society. In this light, it should not be surprising that Islamism, as a counter-project to Kemalism, also puts women in a central place in its movement.

Islamist women are fighting for an Islamist regime and, at the same time, against Kemalist modernity. However, in the Islamist women's rejection of modernity there are apparent contradictions which a simple opposition between traditional Islam and modernity is at a loss to explain. Their position can hardly be seen as a straightforward rejection of modernity grounded in their religious belief. Islamist women are mostly urbanized and educated. The opening of the universities to women was a major element of early Kemalism in order to provide equal educational opportunities and to let women enter the public forums of urban and professional life. Universities were, for the Kemalists, among the prototypical modern institutions and the entry of women into public university life was seen as a major step in the development of modernity. Today, then, we find women similarly using the opportunities provided by Kemalism in their role as spokespersons for opposite camps in current disputes.