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In Turkey, women being allowed to wear headscarves at universities; follows complaint by Istanbul University student, who was sent out of class.<\/p>\n
The head of Turkey\u2019s Higher Education-Board confirmed this week that he ordered Istanbul University, one of the nation\u2019s biggest, to stop its professors from kicking students out of classes for wearing head coverings.<\/p>\n
The directive followed a complaint by an Istanbul University student, who was sent out of class last November for wearing a hat. Many students disguise headscarves by placing an over-sized baseball cap on top of their scarves.<\/p>\n
The headscarf debate has dominated political talk in Turkey for most of the year and almost brought the ruling party to the brink of being banned by the country\u2019s highest court for infringing on human rights. Now it seems that the two major parties have reached a consensus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is liberalization in one sense and in another sense it is acceptance of the headscarf in the public domain in Turkey,\u201d said Dr. Nilufer Narli, a professor of Political Sociology at Bah\u00e7e\u015fehir University and author of numerous books including the forthcoming Feminism, Islamism and Women\u2019s Political Participation: A Comparative Perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a healthy process for Turkey. This issue was really creating conflict and dividing the society,\u201d Dr. Narli said. \u201cIt will bring more unity to Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a sign of how power is shifting in Turkey, the Republican People\u2019s Party, or CHP, the main party of secularist opposition, has said in recent weeks that it, too, would support ending the ban in universities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a political process. The competing parties have been trying to reach a consensus, one political group insisted it is only political symbol and it shouldn\u2019t be permitted in public and another party claimed it is sign of faith and should be allowed in the public sector. Today these two parties are reached a consensus that the headscarf should be accepted and permitted at universities,\u201d Dr. Narli added.<\/p>\n
The directive released today was aimed specifically at Istanbul University, however, it is expected that more universities will follow suit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are against anybody being sent out of the classroom for any way of dressing,\u201d said Education Board President Yusuf Ozcan, in comments to Turkey\u2019s NTV television channel.\u201d We notified this [to Istanbul University]. If it is needed, we will notify other universities as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Secularists, including many academics, support the ban out of fear that any dilution of Turkey\u2019s secular laws will open the floodgates to the country\u2019s Islamization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge step backwards, a step to radicalize the state and a step towards Islamization,\u201d Anders Gravers founder of Stop Islamization Of Europe (SIOE) told The Media Line. \u201cThis will be one of many steps that will transform Turkey into an Islamic state.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe veil means you are a good Muslim, that you are cleaner than everyone else and that those who do not wear it are unclean. The founder of Turkey liberated the women and now he [Abdullah G\u00fcl] is allowing them to be condemned,\u201d Gravers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Arab-Turks want to make this a law because they want to use the veil as a step towards Islamization. To show that they [Muslims] are dominating,\u201d Gravers added.<\/p>\n
Parliament passed legislation to lift the ban in 2008. The law was struck down by Turkey\u2019s top court on grounds that it conflicted with the constitution\u2019s secular guarantees. The court then came within a single vote of banning the AKP Party (Justice and Development Party) as a threat to Turkey\u2019s secular foundations.<\/p>\n
That, however, is unlikely to be repeated. In a referendum last month, the government succeeded in driving through amendments to the constitution that will radically change the make-up of the Constitutional Court, likely ending its dominance by secularists. Turkey\u2019s Higher Education Board, too, was once a bastion of secularism. It is now dominated by government appointees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Turkey, women being allowed to wear headscarves at universities; follows complaint by Istanbul University student, who was sent out of class. The head of Turkey\u2019s Higher Education-Board confirmed this week that he ordered Istanbul University, one of the nation\u2019s biggest, to stop its professors from kicking students out of classes for wearing head coverings. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":24301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[3824],"class_list":["post-24293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-headscarf-ban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}