The relationships between in- and out-group perceptions and evaluations, and the social identity dimensions of covered/uncovered female students in Turkey

Abstract

Allowing female students to enter universities in headscarves has long been a major goal of all Islamist political parties, whereas secularists have regarded this issue as a serious fundamentalist threat to the Turkish Republic. This study of the head coverage issue was conducted in 2006, taking a sample of 100 female university students at Uludag University in Bursa Turkey, where around half of the female students wear headscarves. Data was collected on the in-group/out-group perceptions and evaluations of both covered and uncovered students using structured and semi-structured social identity inventories, and the gathered data was examined in line with the predictions of Tajfel and Turner’s social identity theory and Verkuyten’s identity dimensions of “being,” “feeling,” “doing” and “knowing”. The results showed that, although the perceptions and evaluations of students with and without headscarves pointed to an in-group/out-group distinction, there were striking similarities between the identity dimensions of the two groups in several social categories.