Secular Turkey protests against hijab

PanARMENIAN.Net - Thousands of secularist Turks took to the streets on Saturday, February 2, against government plans to lift a decades-long ban on hijab on campus, warning the lift could undermine Turkey's secularism.



"Turkey is secular and will remain secular," shouted protesters as they waved Turkish flags and banners of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the emblematic leader who threw religion out of public life as he rebuilt Turkey from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.



"We are concerned that universities will plunge into a chaotic environment and opposing groups will start clashing with each other," Professor Mustafa Akaydin, the chairman of the oversight board at Ankara's Middle East Technical University, said in a statement. Reuters reported.



The ruling Justice and Development Party and the far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) opposition party have agreed a constitutional amendment to allow a compromise headscarf on campus. Under the deal between the two parties, women and girls at universities are permitted to cover their heads by tying the headscarf in the traditional way beneath the chin.



A majority of women use the traditional "basortusu" - head cover in Turkish - that is more or less loosely knotted under the chin for protection against the elements or for modesty. It can come off just as easily as it can be tied on and raises no objections. But the ban would remain on the wrap-round headscarf, which secularists claim is associated with political Islam, as well as face-veil.



Together, the AKP and the MHP easily have the two-thirds parliamentary majority required to amend the constitution. The Turkish parliament is expected to approve the amendment this week.



According to Director of Institute of Oriental Studies at the RA Academy of Sciences, Dr Ruben Safrastyan, the Turkish bill permitting to wear hijabs proves consolidation of Islamic spirit and deviation from the ideas promulgated by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish secular state. "It's quite possible that the restrained statement by Turkish military, who guarantee the Ataturk Constitution, is conditioned by a kind of agreement sealed by the AKP and the General Staff on "disclosure" of Ergenekon," the Armenian exert said.