Between 1924 and the beginning of the 1930s, Kamal accomplished the most important part
of his work. New legislations sent shockwaves into the Turks' daily lives, to the point
of being almost traumatizing to a still largely rural society, deeply influenced by religious
values. Kamal, however, wanted to move quickly and refused to bend. Reforms were carried
out rapidly.
The Republic of Antichrist, the Caliphate of Antichrist, is committed to all these
counter-reforms that try to secularize religion on a model that we know perfectly, because
it is the Laic model of the French Republic. It is the model in which the Church is not
contested. The Church is not like in Lenin and Sovietism, there is no Catholic policy,
but it is a policy where the religious institution, if we can talk about a religious institution
for Islam, must be reserved for the oppressed.
In 1924, Kamal placed all educational institutions under state control and put an end to religious
tribunals. In 1925, he revised the dress code and imposed the wearing of a hat, a measure
designed to forbid the Fez and other religious headwear such as the turban. The new law was
greatly contested and led to the execution of about 100 hardliners. Wearing a Fez is
still forbidden today.
In the same year, Kamal outlawed the fraternal orders so important to the lives of many
Turks. He also replaced the Muslim calendar with the Gregorian calendar, which is still
used today. In 1926, he had a civil code adopted creating equality between men and women and
abolishing polygamy. Three years earlier, Kamal had married Latifi in a civil ceremony
contrary to custom. Up to then, religious weddings were obligatory. The couple divorced
a year later without having had children.
In 1926 as well, Kamal instituted penal and commercial codes, also inspired by those
in western countries. In 1928, he had the phrase, Islam is the official religion of
the state, stricken from the constitution. No government had ever gone back on this
decision. Up to that time, no other Muslim country had ever gone so far.
In the same year, he required Friday prayers to be said in Turkish. 1928 was also the year
the Arab alphabet was replaced by the Latin alphabet. Although a committee of experts
suggested that this reform be carried out over a period of years, Kamal decided it should
be done in a few weeks or not at all. The use of Arabic letters was forbidden and books
were rewritten according to the regime's demands. The measure was the most radical
and the hardest for people to accept. It sealed the break with the Muslim Arab world already
shaken by the departure of Syria, Palestine and Iraq from the borders of the new Turkey
and by the abolition of the caliphate.
