International   

Turkey lifts ban on Islamic headscarves

ANKARA: The Turkish Parliament on Saturday approved constitutional amendments that would lift a decades-old ban on Islamic headscarves at Turkey’s universities, despite fierce opposition from the secular establishment.

As the legislators voted, at least 30,000 Turks demonstrated in the capital, Ankara, against the amendments and called for the government’s resignation. “Turkey is secular and will remain secular,” they chanted, many waving flags.

The changes will go for approval to President Abdullah Gul, an observant Muslim who is widely expected to sign the amendments.

Headscarves have long been prohibited at universities in predominantly Muslim but fiercely secular Turkey, a country seeking to join the European Union.

But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the ban a trial for young Muslim women who are forced to remove their traditional headscarves at campus entrances. Some resort to wearing wigs to class to cover their heads.

“We will end the suffering of our girls at university gates,” Mr. Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party has ties to Islamists, said on Thursday.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party said it would appeal to the Constitutional Court.

“This is a Black Revolution. The headscarf is a political symbol,” said lawmaker Canan Aritman. “We will never allow our country to be dragged back into the dark ages.”

Nesrin Baytok, another Republican legislator, said approval of the law “would turn Turkey into Afghanistan” in a domino effect.

“You are not opening the door of freedom — you are shutting it forever for the girls,” Mr. Baytok said. “The heads of many girls are shaved by their brothers to force them to wear headscarves.”

Kamer Genc, an independent lawmaker, said the approval of the law would amount to “the death of the secular republic.”

“This law will create chaos in universities and will lead to the disintegration of the nation,” Mr. Genc said.

A week ago, some 125,000 Turks protested against lifting the ban on headscarves.

Lawmakers voted 403-107 in favour of a first amendment inserting a paragraph into the Constitution stating that everyone has the right to equal treatment from state institutions. Legislators then voted 403-108 to approve a second and final amendment, which Speaker Koksal Toptan said states that “No one can be deprived of [his or her] right to higher education.”

Analysts cautioned that the move threatens to spark tensions with the secular establishment.

Mr. Erdogan, who has strong public backing, insists his party is loyal to Turkey’s secular traditions. His government says the measure is aimed at expanding democracy and freedoms as part of Turkey’s E.U. membership bid.

But secularists harbour deep suspicions about the real intentions of Mr. Erdogan, who tried to criminalise adultery before being forced by the E.U. to step back. Many secular women fear that allowing headscarves in universities will lead eventually to their being pressured to cover their bodies as well. — AP

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Minister to head Indian industry team to Sri Lanka
E.U. warns against flawed polls in Pakistan
Sri Lanka dissident leader dies in accident
Madhesi parties form front
Turkey lifts ban on Islamic headscarves
London to be cycling capital
Zoo celebrity orangutan dies
Atlantis docks with ISS
Delhi, Manila exploring ties between armies

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu