Turkey may be in the grips of a heated domestic political agenda, while Recep Tayyip Erdogan assumes his new position as the country’s first directly elected president and former Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu takes over as prime minister, but a women-only beach — opened Aug. 16 in the internationally renowned Mediterranean resort town of Antalya ​—​ is also making headlines and fueling a controversy among Turks who are increasingly divided politically and socially.​ 

The controversy is not independent from the rise of Erdogan, who paraded his Islamist credentials once again while he was readying to be sworn in as Turkey’s 12th president earlier this week.

Many staunch secularists do not doubt there is a religious motive behind the Antalya municipality's decision to open a beach that caters exclusively to women, and where the security guards and lifeguards, as well as all other personnel, are women.

Further fueling the debate is that Antalya's mayor belongs to Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), and was elected in March after beating the incumbent from the Kemalist and secularist Republican People's Party (CHP).