'Death of secular republic'

Ankara: The lifting of a decades-old ban on Islamic headscarves at Turkey's universities drew fierce opposition from the secular establishment.

Tens of thousands of Turks demonstrated in the capital, Ankara, against the constitutional amendments and called for the government's resignation.

"Turkey is secular and will remain secular," they chanted, many waving flags. In a final vote, lawmakers voted 411-103 to approve two constitutional amendments that will add paragraphs saying everyone has the right to equal treatment from state institutions and "no one can be deprived of [his or her] right to higher education."

The changes must be signed by President Abdullah Gul, who is widely expected to approve the amendments.

One lawmaker said lifting the ban amounted to "the death of the secular republic". The constitutional changes "will create chaos in universities and will lead to the disintegration of the nation", said Kamer Genc, an independent.

Use of wigs

Headscarves have long been prohibited at universities in predominantly Muslim but fiercely secular Turkey, a country seeking to join the European Union.

But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the ban a trial for young Muslim women who are forced to remove their traditional headscarves at campus entrances. Some resort to wearing wigs to class to cover their heads.

"We will end the suffering of our girls at university gates," Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party has ties to Islam, had said on Thursday. The main opposition Republican People's Party said it would appeal to the Constitutional Court.

"This is a Black Revolution. The headscarf is a political symbol," said lawmaker Canan Aritman. "We will never allow our country to be dragged back into the dark ages." Nesrin Baytok, another Republican legislator, said approval of the law "would turn Turkey into Afghanistan" in a domino effect.

"You are not opening the door of freedom - you are shutting it forever for the girls," Baytok said. "The heads of many girls are shaved by their brothers to force them to wear headscarves." A week ago, some 125,000 Turks protested against lifting the ban on head scarves.

Parliamentary speaker Koksal Toptan, - the second ranking official in Turkey's state hierarchy after Gul - said he hoped Turks could move beyond the divisions sparked by the reform. "I hope this will be for the best of Turkey and hope it is done in a spirit of tolerance and reconciliation," said Toptan.

Analysts cautioned that the move threatens to spark tensions with the secular establishment. "We are really entering an environment of conflict no matter what the decision of the Constitutional Court would be," Prof Yilmaz Eser of the Istanbul-based Bahcesehir University told a television channel.

At a glance

Policiesin Europe
The wearing of face veils and headscarves is a sensitive topic across Europe. Here is a summaryof policy in some key countries:

The Netherlands
The Dutch government is set to retreat from a plan for a general ban on Muslim face veils but stop women wearing them in schools and government offices, media reported.
The Cabinet has decided against a broad ban on the burqa or niqab in public as that would violate the principle of freedom of religion.

The Muslim community says only about 50 women wear the head-to-toe burqa or the niqab, a face veil that conceals everything but the eyes. They said a general ban would heighten alienation among the country's about 1 million Muslims.

France
France, with Europe's largest Muslim minority, banned headscarves from its state primary and secondary schools in 2004 under a law against conspicuous religious symbols. The government argued that wearing religious garb in state schools violated the legal separation of church and state.

Supporters of the law also argued that impressionable young girls were forced to wear headscarves and the ban would help them decide for themselves if they wanted to cover their hair. Women at university can wear headscarves, since they are adults. Teachers and other civil servants may not wear any religious symbols at work at all.

There were protests and warnings of unrest before the anti- headscarf law was passed, but it went into effect smoothly with very few girls being expelled from school for refusing to take off their headscarves.

Britain
Britain has no official policy on headscarves or veils. Schools are allowed to set their own dress codes, which have sometimes been challenged by girls unhappy with the rules. Solicitors and legal advisers have been told they can wear headscarves in court providing they do not interfere with proceedings.

Most observers agree more and more British Muslim woman are wearing veils or headscarves. In 2006, Jack Straw caused controversy by saying he would rather Muslim women did not wear veils and that he asked those who visited him in his constituency office to remove them.

Germany
Policy on face veils and headscarves is a matter for individual states in Germany, not the federal government. Seven of Germany's 16 states have banned teachers in state schools from wearing Islamic headscarves.

Hesse's conservative premier Roland Koch called for a ban on pupils wearing a burqa in schools a few weeks ago. But his idea backfired when he discovered the state had no pupils who wore a burqa.

- Reuters