ANKARA: History was made on Monday as Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the ban on Islamic head scarves on women will be lifted in a speech when he was introducing key political reforms.
Although the overturn of the ban will allow most civil servants to wear head scarves, the ban would still be in effect for prosecutors, judges, military personnel and police.
After 36 years of debating on the headscarf controversy, Turkey, which has long been a secular country finally grants its citizens religious freedom and aims to defend the rights of their people.
“These restrictions violate the right to work, the freedom of thought and belief,” said Erdogan.
He also added that the government would vow to enforce “a penalty on those who prevent people from exercising the rights attached to their religious duties.”
Other details of the political reforms include boosting Kurdish rights by allowing the use of the Kurdish language in private schools, allowing Kurdish names and letters as well as removing the regulation to read the student oath which has been labelled as “ethnic discrimination” and includes the line, “I am a Turk and I am proud to be a Turk.”
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