ANKARA (Reuters)
Turkey's parliament approved in a first round of voting on Thursday an amendment to the constitution permitting women students to wear the Muslim headscarf at university, a measure opposed by the secular elite.
The secular establishment, which includes army generals, judges and university rectors, fears lifting the existing ban would undermine the separation of state and religion, one of the founding principles of the modern Turkish republic.
The amendment is one of the most significant moves on religious freedoms in predominantly Muslim but secular Turkey since a military coup in 1980 that led to a crackdown on individual rights.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says he wants to allow the headscarf at campus to boost religious and personal freedoms.
In the final vote of the first round, completed at about 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), the amendment was approved by 404 to 92, easily exceeding the required two-thirds parliamentary majority of 367.
The amendment, sponsored by the Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party and the opposition MHP, is expected to be approved in a final round of voting on Saturday as both parties have more than the two-thirds majority in seats between them.
Two-thirds of Turkish women wear headscarves and many of them stopped going to university after a ban on wearing them in public institutions was extended to universities in 1989.
The ban was significantly tightened in 1997 when Turkey's army generals, acting with public support, ousted a government they deemed too Islamist.
Those opposed to lifting the ban see the headscarf as a symbol of their worst fears that Turkey could eventually slide into Islamic Sharia law as practiced in neighboring Iran. |
