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Quoted By: >>672245
Constitutional amendments alter rules for students, spur fierce opposition
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's parliament on Saturday approved two constitutional amendments that would lift a decades-old ban on Islamic headscarves in universities, despite the fierce opposition of the secular establishment.
Parliament voted 403-107 in favor of the amendment that would insert a paragraph into the Constitution stating that everyone has the right to equal treatment from state institutions.
The lawmakers voted 403-108 to approve the second and final amendment that says "no one can be deprived of (his or her) right to higher education," Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said.
Erdogan seeks to channel frustration
In predominantly Muslim Turkey, which seeks European Union membership, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has channeled the frustration of devout masses, who feel excluded from the establishment, into political action.
“We will end the sufferings of our girls at university gates,” Erdogan said Thursday in reference to pious female students who have been forced to remove their head scarves at the entrance to campuses. Some have attended classes wearing wigs.
The Parliament will also hold a final vote later Saturday on the overall package. The ruling party and a conservative nationalist party that supports the changes have the required two-thirds majority.
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's parliament on Saturday approved two constitutional amendments that would lift a decades-old ban on Islamic headscarves in universities, despite the fierce opposition of the secular establishment.
Parliament voted 403-107 in favor of the amendment that would insert a paragraph into the Constitution stating that everyone has the right to equal treatment from state institutions.
The lawmakers voted 403-108 to approve the second and final amendment that says "no one can be deprived of (his or her) right to higher education," Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said.
Erdogan seeks to channel frustration
In predominantly Muslim Turkey, which seeks European Union membership, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has channeled the frustration of devout masses, who feel excluded from the establishment, into political action.
“We will end the sufferings of our girls at university gates,” Erdogan said Thursday in reference to pious female students who have been forced to remove their head scarves at the entrance to campuses. Some have attended classes wearing wigs.
The Parliament will also hold a final vote later Saturday on the overall package. The ruling party and a conservative nationalist party that supports the changes have the required two-thirds majority.
