Last update - 00:00 10/02/2008
Turkish lawmakers lift ban on Islamic head scarves at universities
By The Associated Press
The Turkish parliament voted Saturday to amend the constitution to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic head scarves at the country's universities, despite fierce opposition from the secular establishment.
Tens of thousands of 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.
In a final vote, lawmakers voted 411-103 to approve two constitutional amendments saying everyone has the right to equal treatment from state institutions and no one can be deprived of his or her right to higher education.
The changes must be signed by President Abdullah Gul, an observant Muslim who is widely expected to approve the amendments.
One lawmaker said lifting the ban amounted to the death of the secular republic.
"The constitutional changes will create chaos in universities and will lead to the disintegration of the nation," said Kamer Genc, an independent.
Head scarves 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 head scarves 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," Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party has ties to Islam, had said Thursday.
The main opposition Republican People's Party said it would appeal to the Constitutional Court.
"This is a Black Revolution. The head scarf 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," Baytok said. "The heads of many girls are shaved by their brothers to force them to wear head scarves."
A week ago, some 125,000 Turks protested against lifting the ban on head scarves.
Analysts cautioned that the move threatens to spark tensions with the secular establishment.