Scarf This

Turkey’s Parliament took a step toward lifting a band against women’s head scarves at universities on Saturday.

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.

The head scarf ban pits the wealthy middle class of observant Turks against the secular elite, which is backed by the military and judiciary.

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.

Secular Turks peacefully protested on the streets of Turkey’s capital, Ankara, on Saturday. The protesters chanted that secularism and women’s right to resist being forced to wear head scarves was under threat.

"This is a Black Revolution. The head scarf is a political symbol," said lawmaker Canan Aritman of the main opposition Republican People's Party, which said it would appeal the changes. "We will never allow our country to be dragged back into the dark ages."

"You are not opening the door of freedom — you are shutting it forever for the girls," fellow lawmaker Nesrin Baytok said.

"The heads of many girls are shaved by their brothers to force them to wear head scarves."

Erdogan's party argued the university ban invaded individual rights and religious liberty in a country where two-thirds of women still cover their heads.

"We will end the sufferings of our girls at university gates," Erdogan said Thursday, referring to pious female Muslim students who must remove their head scarves as they enter campuses.