Which departments could I choose? Only the pedagogical department and those sorts of things were available. I did not want to do this sort of thing, and therefore I was out in the cold. ÖNDER started a campaign to fund successful students. By chance I applied to it. One of my friends told me about the campaign because I was in the village at the time. There were not many means of communication in the village. At the last minute, they [ÖNDER] sent me the application form. I filled in the form and sent it back just a few hours before the deadline; otherwise I would have missed it. Later, they wanted us to go to Istanbul for an interview. We were interviewed. Then we were called again, and they said we had been accepted.

They [the ÖNDER executives] had negotiated with all private universities before advising them [the İhl graduates] to choose these universities. They said: we will advise these students to choose your university. Can they study here with their headscarves? Everyone said that would be okay. Then, during the registration time, Çevik Bir visited Yeditepe University – Dalan's university. He said, ‘You will not accept these students [female İHL graduates with headscarves] here’. So they did not register our students.