Turkish Academics Dispute Whether Law Allows Islamic Head Scarf in Universities
-- Some Turkish academics dispute whether a recent change in the Constitution allows women to wear Islamic head scarves in universities, signaling that the battle over the religious attire has yet to run its course.
Most universities defied an instruction Monday from the higher education and denied entry to students wearing the Islamic head scarf, though the prominent Bosporus University in Istanbul allowed them, local media reported.
Television footage from Cihan news agency showed guards at the Kocaeli University, near Istanbul, stopping half a dozen female students in head scarves from entering the campus.
Government attempts to lift a ban on head scarves in universities have escalated tensions between the secular opposition and the Islamic-rooted ruling party since its victory in general elections last summer.
Earlier this month, parliament passed two constitutional amendments that the ruling party considers sufficient to abolish the ban.
The amendments make it harder to bar anyone from the right to higher education unless they are in clear violation of laws, which the government thinks do not openly forbid Islamic head scarves in universities.
President Abdullah Gul, a pious Muslim, approved the change Friday. The main opposition party said they would appeal the ruling to the nation's top court, whose past verdicts helped enforce the ban.
The government says the measure is aimed at expanding democracy and freedoms as part of Turkey's EU membership bid.
Higher education chief Yusuf Ziya Ozcan said Sunday that the constitutional change made the ban on Islamic head scarves void and asked university presidents to act accordingly.
"Measures can be taken to stop only those people who could not be identified from entering campuses," Ozcan said in a written statement.
Nine members of the 20-chair board that Ozcan chairs said his call was illegal, and most universities asked students with head covers to remove them before they could be allowed into classes.
Necmi Yuzbasioglu, one of the nine academics, said Ozcan did not have the authority to decide if the ban could be lifted because a higher education law must still be changed to state that female students could cover their hair.
Most proponents of the ban see the head scarf as an emblem of political Islam and consider any attempt to allow it in schools and government buildings as an attack against Turkey's secular laws. The ban's opponents say the head scarf is a matter of free expression.
The wearing of headscarves was first banned in universities shortly after a 1980 military coup carried out by officers who viewed Islamists as a serious threat. But the implementation of that rule varied during the law's early years.
Source: The Associated Press
Television footage from Cihan news agency showed guards at the Kocaeli University, near Istanbul, stopping half a dozen female students in head scarves from entering the campus.
Government attempts to lift a ban on head scarves in universities have escalated tensions between the secular opposition and the Islamic-rooted ruling party since its victory in general elections last summer.
Earlier this month, parliament passed two constitutional amendments that the ruling party considers sufficient to abolish the ban.
The amendments make it harder to bar anyone from the right to higher education unless they are in clear violation of laws, which the government thinks do not openly forbid Islamic head scarves in universities.
President Abdullah Gul, a pious Muslim, approved the change Friday. The main opposition party said they would appeal the ruling to the nation's top court, whose past verdicts helped enforce the ban.
The government says the measure is aimed at expanding democracy and freedoms as part of Turkey's EU membership bid.
Higher education chief Yusuf Ziya Ozcan said Sunday that the constitutional change made the ban on Islamic head scarves void and asked university presidents to act accordingly.
"Measures can be taken to stop only those people who could not be identified from entering campuses," Ozcan said in a written statement.
Nine members of the 20-chair board that Ozcan chairs said his call was illegal, and most universities asked students with head covers to remove them before they could be allowed into classes.
Necmi Yuzbasioglu, one of the nine academics, said Ozcan did not have the authority to decide if the ban could be lifted because a higher education law must still be changed to state that female students could cover their hair.
Most proponents of the ban see the head scarf as an emblem of political Islam and consider any attempt to allow it in schools and government buildings as an attack against Turkey's secular laws. The ban's opponents say the head scarf is a matter of free expression.
The wearing of headscarves was first banned in universities shortly after a 1980 military coup carried out by officers who viewed Islamists as a serious threat. But the implementation of that rule varied during the law's early years.
Source: The Associated Press
