En Turquie, en octobre 1923, un jeune officier, progressiste, Mustafa Kemal, convaincu que la religion était un frein à la modernité, prit la tête du pays et mena un plan de transformation et de réformes radicales sans précédent. Il fit de la Turquie la première nation musulmane à devenir une république laïque. Républicain mais pas démocrate, Atatürk - "père des Turcs" -, par son chauvinisme et son culte de la personnalité, installa également durablement une fierté nationaliste exacerbée.
Built on the smoking rubble of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey was the first Muslim nation in the world to enshrine a secular identity on the marble stone of its Constitution. The only one still to this day. Against the Ottoman theocracy, against the Islam of the ulemas, against popular Islam, and even against the will of the majority, Mustafa Kemal imposed secularism. “Its” secularism: Lâïklik. An unprecedented approach whose scope still resonates in contemporary Turkey, between filiation and protest, and well beyond.
Beyond this political decision, he sets a “crazy” objective: to forge a new identity for his people. Adoption of the Latin alphabet, emancipation of women, clothing regulations with the ban on the traditional fez, education reform, organization of society and even of daily life… He imposed his vision and profoundly transformed his country on the move towards its westernization.
Turkin presidentti Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) halusi luoda modernin valtion Osmanien valtakunnan raunioille. Atatürk toteutti uudistuksia kovin ottein, sillä hän halusi rakentaa maallisen yhteiskunnan ja edistää myös naisten tasa-arvoa.
Turkiets president Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) ville skapa en modern stat i spillrorna av det Osmanska riket. Atatürk drev igenom förändringar med hård hand, eftersom han ville skapa en sekulär stat och främja också kvinnors jämställdhet.
