On February 9, 2008, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed a constitutional amendment easing the country's ban on Islamic headscarves. The amendment, which had received preliminary approval earlier that week, allowed Muslim women to begin wearing headscarves in universities. Based on concerns that the ban effectively denied some Muslim women access to higher education, the easement's passage met fierce opposition from protesters that interpreted it as a political attack on the country's secular principles. However, the Constitutional Court of Turkey struck down the amendments to the Turkish Constitution in October 2008 on the basis that they "indirectly [change] and [make] nonfunctional the basic features of the republic."

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Learn more about headscarf bans and burqas from the JURIST news archive.

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