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411 lawmakers of the 550-seat parliament voted for relaxing the hijab ban on campus. (Reuters) |
ANKARA — Turkey's parliament on Saturday, February 9, overwhelmingly voted to relax a decades-long ban on hijab on campus against a backdrop of a mass rally by secularists protesting the landmark move.
"The proposal to change the constitution has been approved," parliament speaker Koksal Toptan told lawmakers after the vote, reported Reuters.
Some 411 lawmakers of the 550-seat parliament voted 'yes' for a proposal tabled by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to amend the Constitution to relax the ban.
The new legislation, which was backed by the opposition Nationalist Action Party (MHP) after a compromise deal with the AKP, only needed 367 votes to pass.
The amendment will read that the state will treat everyone equally when it provides services such as university courses and that no one can be barred from education for reasons not clearly laid down by law, an allusion to hijab-clad students.
"I hope this will be for the best for Turkey and hope it is done in a spirit of tolerance and reconciliation," said Toptan.
Hijab, an obligatory code of dress in Islam, was banned in public buildings, universities, schools and government buildings in Muslim-majority Turkey shortly after a 1980 military coup.
Under a compromise deal between AKP and MHP, 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.
The amendment now needs to be approved by President Abdullah Gul, a former AKP member.
Secularists Rally
The vote came as tens of thousands of secularists took anew to the streets to protest the parliamentary vote, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Turkey is secular and will remain secular," shouted the protestors, who packed a square in downtown Ankara, filling the main artery running through the heart of the city.
Television reports said there were as many as 200,000 people at the demonstration, dubbed the "Rally for Secularism and Independence".
A majority of the demonstrators, who were waving the red and white star and crescent flag of Turkey and bearing portraits of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, were women.
Some were wearing headbands that read "We are following your oath" along with pictures of Ataturk.
"Tayyip, take your headscarf and stuff it," shouted the demonstrators, referring to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose wife and daughters wear hijab.
"What is being done today in parliament is to eliminate the republican regime and replace it with bigotry. They want to destroy the secular democratic republic," Gokhan Gunaydin, from the organizing committee, told the crowd.
Secularist forces, including the army and senior judges, see the headscarf as a symbol of defiance against Turkey's fiercely guarded secular system.
Secularist academics have warned that lifting the ban on headscarves would lead to clashes on campuses and a boycott of classes by female academics.
The AKP says it is fully committed to secularism and has given assurances that the headscarf reform will only be extended to university students.
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