28 January 2008, Future Global Network (FGN), a Kuala Lumpur-based network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) geared towards peace and justice for humanity, hails the Turkish government’s proposal to lift the ban on headscarf on university campuses, including women professionals and employees in public institutions.
 
The headscarf ban was imposed by the secular Turkish government “as a barrier to the perceived threat of Islam’s encroachment into the political field, and to protect women who chose not to wear the headscarf,” sometime after the military coup in 1980.
 

But according to Human Rights Watch, the headscarf prohibition is an “unwarranted infringement on the right to religious practice, as well as a violation of women’s right to education, freedom of thought, conscience and privacy.” In addition, headscarves do not pose a threat to public safety, health, order or morals, and do not impinge on the rights of others, it said.
 

The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, with the support of the Nationalist Movement (MHP) Party, plan to lift the ban through Parliament. Both parties have an overwhelming Parliamentary majority to achieve a desired Constitutional Amendments that would merit the staging of a referendum to pave the way for cleansing the nation of peripheral problems. The referendum is expected to clear the way for further discussion involving the Constitutional Court through which the Opposition hopes to derail any constitutional changes.
 
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan said he wants a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities abolished “as soon as possible” despite harsh objections from secularists.
 
Turkish students and teachers who were banned from entering school campuses with a headscarf by the Higher Education Council have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for redress of grievances. The Court is expected to deliver its judgment on the issue anytime. The Higher Education Council was created by the military after the 1980 coup in Turkey.
 
FGN fully supports the Government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in lifting the headscarf ban and that should have been a non-issue, and restoring human rights which has been denied the Muslims more than any other country, including Europe and the USA

AHMAD AZAM ABDUL RAHMAN
Chairman, Future Global Network, Malaysia;
Council Member, Union of NGOs of Islamic World, Istanbul, Turkey; and
Trustee, Munazzamat al-Da’wah al-Islamiyya, Khartoum, Sudan.