Turkish lawmakers vote to lift scarf ban

Defying protests by secular Turks, lawmakers voted Saturday to amend the constitution to allow women to wear Islamic head scarves at universities.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a self-described conservative democrat who leads a party that has its roots in political Islam, had described the ban on head scarves as an obstacle to young women seeking an education. After scoring a solid win in parliamentary elections last summer, his Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials AKP, had pledged to work to lift the long-standing restrictions.

Turkey is overwhelmingly Muslim but officially secular, with a separation of mosque and state that dates to the founding of the republic in 1923. The country’s founding father, Kemal Ataturk, banned religious dress in public buildings and imposed the Latin alphabet in lieu of Arabic script.

Before the vote in the capital, Ankara, tens of thousands of secular Turks took to the streets, waving the red national flag. “Turkey is secular and will remain so!” they chanted.

The vote was the latest skirmish between the country’s secular establishment -- which dominates academia, the judiciary and the upper ranks of the military -- and more religious Turks, who in recent years have become more educated and affluent, gaining greater political clout.

Saturday’s second and final vote by lawmakers, a lopsided 411 to 103, cleared the way for the measure to be signed by President Abdullah Gul.

Gul, who is religiously observant, has indicated that he will approve the constitutional changes.

Erdogan and his party, which have helped push forward Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, described the measure as being consistent with religious freedom in a democratic country. The ruling party said, however, that regulations would be issued forbidding women to wear face-covering veils or full-length chadors on campus.

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party said it would appeal the issue to the Constitutional Court.

“We are experiencing a constitutional amendment brought by imposition, not by social consensus,” said Kemal Kilcdaroglu, the deputy chairman of the party’s parliamentary group.

But some noted secularists, including Turkey’s best-known author, Orhan Pamuk, declined to condemn the lifting of the ban.

Pamuk, a Nobel laureate, told the Italian daily La Repubblica that head scarves were part of Turkey’s cultural tradition and not “a symbol of fundamentalism.”

“The ideal thing is to respect [different] behaviors, approach problems moderately and try to be perceptive of problems and human beings,” Pamuk told the newspaper.

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Times staff writer Laura King contributed to this report from Islamabad, Pakistan.