This article analyzes the speeches of Turkish female parliamentarians during the headscarf debate. We examine how deputies with different political and ideological predilections discursively construct women’s rights and employ legitimation strategies to validate their policy position. The findings reveal that on the one hand, the female deputies use different legitimation strategies to justify arguments for or against the use of headscarves in the public sector. On the other hand, they embed the headscarf debate into the broader political goals they pursue in a polarized political setting. They deploy legitimation strategies around the headscarf debate to rationalize future policy on issues ranging from the expansion of human rights and democracy to the change of the type of political regime.

中文翻译：

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女性的本质表征

本文分析了土耳其女议员在头巾辩论中的发言。我们研究了具有不同政治和意识形态偏好的代表如何话语性地构建妇女权利并采用合法化策略来验证其政策立场。研究结果表明，一方面，女代表使用不同的合法化策略来证明支持或反对在公共部门使用头巾的论点。另一方面，他们将头巾辩论嵌入到他们在两极分化的政治环境中追求的更广泛的政治目标中。他们围绕头巾辩论部署合法化策略，以合理化未来在人权和民主扩张到政治政权类型改变等问题上的政策。