Turkish youth push back against conservative mores

Source:Financial Times Date:04Jan2020

Yet, despite this drive, there is evidence that the project is having limited success so far. A survey of 5,800 people published last year by the polling agency Konda showed that Turkish youth were less likely than the wider population to describe themselves as “religious conservative”. They were also less likely to say that they fasted or prayed regularly, or that they covered their hair.

The same survey found that those aged 15 to 29 were not only less religiously conservative than their elders, but also less so than the same age group a decade earlier. “Erdogan aggressively expanded religious education . . . But, paradoxically, people are getting less religious, especially younger segments of the population,” said Gul Ozyegin, a sociologist based at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. “The outcome must be hugely disappointing [for the ruling party].”