Citizens of Parallel Publics: Urban Veiled Women in Turkey This study is based on a research conducted among veiled urban women who are employed as sales representatives in retail sector in five different urban centers in Turkey. The main concern of this study is to demonstrate and discuss how veiled women develop an alternative strategy to cope with the conflicting requirements of secular and Islamic publics. My argument is based on a perception of parallel universes in which different ways of life are conducted so that one either belongs to modern secular universe or the modern Islamic. There is not only a segregation of job markets but also there is segregation in terms of lifestyles, values, public spaces such as beaches, bookstores, coffee houses, shops, neighborhoods that segregate Islamic universe from the secular one. It seems that segregation is taken for granted and even voluntary and self-imposed among young women who work in sales jobs. I define voluntary segregation as post-secular strategy through which veiled women come into terms with both conservative and secular gender politics. I aim to understand how veiled women experience their intimate citizenship in the face of voluntary segregation. What kinds of norms and practices does the strategy of voluntary segregation generate and reinforce? This paper explores the consequences of such a strategy first, as a strategy that reinforces an authoritarian political universe in which there is only one authoritative source of truth. Voluntary segregation prevents the emergence of counter-publics which in the western experience promoted the democratization of the public sphere. Unlike a western public this is not open ended or an infinitely contestable public but one with separate language of politics and distinct regimes of truth. Secondly, as a coping strategy for veiled women, it seems to have rendered some benefits for them. I attempt to demonstrate how veiled women describe these benefits ranging from respect, protection, inclusion, comfort and peace of mind and juxtaposed them against alienation, radical difference as in sticking out, harassment and insecurity, anxiety and fear.