Turkey's Cleavage Crackdown Goes to College
...
The latest example of Erdogan's usefully divisive initiatives is a proposal to ban co-ed housing at universities. That may sound like social conservatism, but it's more than that. Erdogan said he was implementing the constitution's requirement to protect "the youth," but college students are adults. So Erdogan wants to override the constitution, which protects privacy in the home, to impose his idea of the behavior that Islam demands. That's a pretty good definition of Islamism and has made a lot of people angry, which was the purpose.
Erdogan's acolytes in the AKP have since been casting around for other ways to legally justify the move. The result was Interior Minister Muammar Guler's pronouncement that "terrorist organizations have started to significantly abuse the relationships between the boys and girls, those among the university youth. They use it as a recruitment base.”
Today, party spokesman Huseyin Celik went on to express concern that student dormitories were being used for prostitution. He also said that while his party was broad and diverse, he personally didn't approve of Christianity or Judaism. A few weeks ago, Celik got a TV talent show host fired by complaining that she showed too much cleavage.
Erdogan sees secular students and women who dress provocatively on TV as a useful enemy. Just as he labeled the Gezi Park protesters terrorists, he and his supporters are demonizing opponents to galvanize and solidify his support, not least against moderates from his own party, such as President Abdullah Gul, who will compete with him for power until next year's election and beyond.
Erdogan has already lost the liberals from his coalition. Even supporters such as the columnist Mustafa Akyol, who believe strongly that Islam and liberalism are compatible and have bent over backwards to measure Erdogan's transgressions against his contributions, are now giving up on him. In a country with a conservative majority, however, Erdogan doesn't seem to care about losing the liberals. He hopes to scoop up the rest.
...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-12/turkey-s-cleavage-crackdown-goes-to-college.html