This article focuses on the April 1999 ‘headscarf incident’ at the Turkish national assembly when two newly elected headscarved deputies had to be sworn in: while one unveiled for the ceremony to obey the rule on wearing ‘modern’ attire and was sworn in, the other remained veiled, claiming it was her religious responsibility and civil right to do so, only to be protested by the social democrats for politicizing religion, thus having to leave without being sworn in. The argument takes issue with the interpretation of the incident solely as another individual enactment of the secularist-Islamist divide in Turkey, and presents instead a multivalent approach that studies the layers of meaning that form around the incident, comprising political posturing, polarization, intercession and silences. By so doing, the article moves the debate from the personal gendered choices of the protagonists to the societal forces that shape their actions.