By Xinhua
Ankara : Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are expected on Tuesday to submit a bill on lifting a ban on women wearing Muslim headscarves at universities, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
The two parties had reached an agreement on Monday on rewriting parts of the Constitution in an effort to lift the headscarf ban in state universities.
According to the bill presented by the two parties, the ban would remain on other forms of Islamic dress such as the burka, which conceals the whole body. The ban would also continue to be in effect for teachers and women working in public offices.
Female students would be allowed to wear headscarves at universities as long as they tied them under the chin, leaving their faces exposed, said Devlet Bahceli, chairman of the MHP on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Bahceli noted that wearing headscarf would only be allowed in institutions of higher education. “Elementary and secondary schools will be out of this framework,” he said.
Commenting on the headscarf reform, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed on Tuesday that their sole aim was to eliminate unjust treatment towards girls at universities.
They had concluded their discussions on Monday with the MHP and they would amend several articles of Constitution to ease headscarf ban at universities, noted Erdogan, adding that the amendment was limited at universities.
The lawmakers could vote on the bill as early as next week, said the report.
Turkey’s revered founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, banned religious attire in daily life. The ban has been enforced in public offices and schools since 1980.
Turkish secularists have long opposed any easing of the ban, fearing it would harm the separation of state and religion in the country.