| Submit your comments on this article |
| The Grand Turk |
| Turkey PM hints at new removal of headscarf ban |
| 2010-09-30 |
| [Al Arabiya] Turkey's prime minister said on Wednesday a law that prohibits women wearing the Mohammedan headscarf at university was against freedom of belief, in his strongest hint yet the AK Party might try again to lift the ban. Turkey's Constitutional Court struck down in 2008 an attempt by the ruling AK Party to remove the ban. But after voters approved constitutional changes in September to overhaul the court, AK Party officials have put the sensitive issue back on the government's agenda. "We agree with society on the headscarf issue," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to university students in Istanbul, which was broadcast live. "We do not want to disappoint our youth. There is no sense in being so interventionist in freedom of belief and education anymore," Erdogan said. His comments come months before a election that will herald a new constitution if his party wins. Wearing the Mohammedan headscarf is a touchy issue in European Union candidate Turkey, an overwhelmingly Mohammedan nation with a strictly secular constitution. Headscarves are not permitted at public universities and civil servants are banned from wearing them at work. Religious-minded Turks say the ban is a violation of their individual rights; secularist Turks say it is needed to defend the secularist republic founded by Kemal Ataturk in 1923. After winning a Sept. 12 referendum on constitutional reforms, Erdogan declared plans for a brand new constitution after elections that are due by July 2011. The AK Party, which has roots in political Islam and has evolved from banned Islamist parties, is deeply mistrusted by rivals, who suspect it of using liberal reforms as a cover to roll back the republic's secularism. The pro-business AK Party, in power since 2002, sees itself as akin to Europe's conservative Social Democrat parties, and accuses opponents of scare-mongering. The referendum victory in September has boosted Erdogan's chances of winning the election, when the AKP will seek a third consecutive term of single party rule. Rivals fear an emboldened AK Party will push legislation to please its conservative power base in the religious heartland and that their secular lifestyle is under threat. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the new leader of the staunchly secular opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), has said he is willing to discuss the issue of the headscarf and said his party is ready to start collaborating on a new constitution. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Last month Turkey hosted the world basketball championships. Having been aware of this issue and Turkey's growing Islamification for some time, I paid close attention to the crowd shots as I watched. To my pleasant surprise, there were plenty of young women and most were un-scarved. But that's not a representative sample of the whole population. Probably just the Istanbul elites. |
| Posted by: DJ Curtis C 2010-09-30 18:36 |
| #7 The future: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LAM2S3vqiU0/THH8G1MO7vI/AAAAAAAABUo/d4mJr1Ib3hs/s1600/Minnie_Burqa.jpg |
| Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 2010-09-30 14:29 |
| #6 And what to look forward to: GROZNY, Russia, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Many women in Russia's volatile Chechnya region said on Friday they had been harassed and some physically harmed by bands of men for not wearing headscarves during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. // Atabayeva said earlier she had seen a group of men with automatic rifles taunting women for not wearing headscarves. A woman in her mid-30s said she was punched in the face by a man in Islamic dress after refusing to put on a headscarf he had given her. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE67J13Q.htm And this: The Kremlin-backed head of RussiaÂ’s Muslim Chechnya region has praised assailants who targeted women with paintball pellets for going bareheaded, prompting outrage from rights activists. Eyewitnesses have said men in camouflage, often worn by police and security forces in the volatile region, fired paintball guns from cars about a dozen times last month at women who were not wearing headscarves. http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2010/07/09/chechnyas-leader-hails-paintball-attacks-on-women-without-headscarves/ |
| Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 2010-09-30 14:26 |
| #5 And so it begins.... "Disney OKs Muslim intern to wear scarf" http://ocresort.ocregister.com/2010/09/27/disney-oks-muslim-intern-to-wear-hijab/56916/ |
| Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 2010-09-30 14:20 |
| #4 I will not make a judgement on documental content one way or the other but must admit, a faith or belief system based on any so-called "written word" or printed text is directed quite logically, at the literate among us or some 'trusted agent' or appointed representative. Perhaps God intended a more inclusive and less dependent audience. Among a host of other questions, I hope to one day ask him about this one. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-09-30 11:35 |
| #3 Yup entirely correct, That's how I lost My Religion, I actually READ the unabridged Bible, and it didn't say what the preachers said it did. The Holy book is riddled with errors, One book contradicting another, when I asked My Priest(Episcopal) He said, "You must BELIEVE" and never answered what I asked, never. Then I realised that Organized Religion is a huge SCAM,(Send/Give MONEY, Time and Effort, Yes for free) I never went back again. God may exist, I don't know, but the HOLY BOOK, is an untrustworthy, Contradictory, pack of lies. Mostly hearsay and tall tales. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-09-30 11:11 |
| #2 Religion has no place in education in much the same way facts have no place in religion. |
| Posted by: Swanimote 2010-09-30 09:19 |
| #1 Turkey PM hints at new removal of headscarf ban Translation, "Please don't Kill Me". |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-09-30 05:08 |