ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkey's parliament took a major step yesterday toward lifting a ban against women's head scarves at universities, setting the stage for a final showdown with the country's secular elite over where Islam fits in the building of an open society.
Turkish lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a measure supported by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to change Turkey's Constitution in a way they say would guarantee all citizens the right to go to college regardless of how they dress.
Turkish authorities imposed the ban in the late 1990s, arguing that the growing number of covered women in colleges threatened secularism, one of the founding principles of modern Turkey.
Crowds of secular Turks took to the streets of Turkey's capital, Ankara, chanting yesterday that secularism – and women's right to resist being forced to wear head scarves by family members or religious authorities – was under threat and demanding that the government step down.
