Turkey Lifts Ban On Wearing of Hijab In Public Institutions

Euronews reported yesterday that Turkey has lifted its 90-year old ban on wearing of Islamic headscarves in the workplace and in universities. The ban on civil servants wearing overt symbols of religious affiliation was originally put in place in 1925 by Mustafa Ataturk who founded Turkey as a secular republic.  In making the change, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the ban on headscarves in public institutions violated freedom of religion and conscience. However his critics see this as part of his Islamic agenda. Other changes also adopted give greater freedom to Kurds, lifting the ban on their using letters in their minority languages that are not part of the Turkish alphabet.