SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Next week, the ruling Islamic conservative party in Turkey will likely succeed in lifting a ban on women wearing head scarves at universities. An end to the ban would infuriate secular elites, but please a growing conservative middle class.
Women at Turkish universities could soon show up in class wearing traditional Islamic head scarves, as the government moves towards lifting a ban on the practice.
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has its root in an Islamist religious movement, reached an agreement with an opposition nationalist party on Thursday to cooperate on legislation to lift the two decade-old ban.
"Agreement has been reached ... the issue of the head scarf was evaluated in terms of rights and freedoms," read a joint statement released by the AKP and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The two parties control enough seats in parliament to end the ban with a vote that could be held as early as next week.
A lift on the ban would anger Turkey's secular elite, who view the wearing of head scarves as a political statement aimed at undermining the nation's secular principles. Turkey to Lift University Head Scarf Ban >>>
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