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Turkey lifts ban on wearing headscarves in govt offices

09 Oct '13
1 min read

The Government of Turkey has lifted a ban on women wearing headscarves in offices of state-run institutions, with immediate effect, as part of a reform package aimed at improving democracy.
 
The ban was first imposed nearly 90 years ago, the early years of the Turkish Republic. The longstanding restriction kept several women from joining Government offices.
 
The new rules, as published in the Official Gazette, would not apply to the military, the police, and the judiciary.
 
When Turkey was formed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923 from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, he introduced a ban on religious attire in public offices in his effort to promote secularism in a Muslim majority country.
 
The ban on headscarves at universities was lifted by the Turkish Government in 2011, but it continued in public offices.
 
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the ban "violated the freedom of thought and faith, right to employment, and included discrimination." 
 

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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