Protest held against end of ban on headscarves

Ankara: Some 40,000 flag-waving secular Turks on Sunday denounced the Islamic-rooted government over its plans to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic head scarves in universities - a move the foreign minister said would expand Turkish freedoms.

The government has defended its plan as a reform needed to bring Turkey in line with European Union human rights guidelines, but many including the country's influential military establishment see the move as a serious threat to the country's secular traditions.

"Turkey is secular and will remain secular," the crowd chanted as they marched to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey and the symbol of its secular identity.

A parliamentary commission on Friday approved a legal amendment under which female students would be allowed to wear head scarves at universities as long as they tie them under the chin, leaving their faces more exposed. However, the nuance was unlikely to win over many opponents who regard the head scarves as political statements.

Many fear the government is raising the profile of Islam in this secular country and rolling back gains of the secular republic against Islamic rule during the times of the Ottoman Empire.

"I am furious over attempts to cover the republic itself," Sevgi Ozel, an author, told NTV television. Senal Saruhan, head of the Association of Republican Women which organised the demonstration, accused the government of "exploiting religion". "The government should listen to the voice of this crowd," Saruhan said.