"Turkey: with or without the headscarf
By Razeshta Sethna
3/23/2008
The Turkish government is standing firm after lifting a legal ban that prevents women who wear the headscarf from attending college. But secularists are outraged and say it threatens to create a 'religious pressure' that might have a snowball effect. As secularists and the military fear a hidden agenda, despite efforts at introducing reforms, Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has remained undeterred while redrawing Turkey's 1981 constitution. Erdogan's first move during this constitutional overhaul included preserving anti-free-speech laws, including the infamous Article 301, which has taken authors such as the Nobel winner, Orhan Pamuk, and Elif Shafak to court for 'insulting Turkishness,' and calling for the revoking of the headscarf ban in universities."
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