Pointing the way with headscarves

Thomas Friedman recently visited Turkey, and came away dismayed as the Islamist direction it's taking, writing about it in a NYT column. My comment:

Adding to the general grief are the facts that most Western leftists (in America and Europe) vehemently agree with Erdogan--and that Israel seems to be stumped by the Palestinians' demographic time bomb (also by the intransigence of Israel's own religious fanatics).

I bet you'll be able to gauge the path Turkey takes by the percentage of women who "take the veil" or worse. That's what happened in Egypt. And Afghanistan (well, in Kabul, which was quite western up until the Soviet departure). And Iraq (before we "liberated" it, ironically).

The first ones to pop up are a brave religious statement by conservative women. But after the tipping point, those who don't put one on get more and more pressure, regardless of their own convictions, and finally it becomes physically dangerous (i.e. you're risking your life) to not wear one in public--as is the case in Iraq today, for example.

As go headscarves, so goes the nation.