Women protest lifting of Islamic headscarf ban

Some 125,000 flag-waving Turks, mostly women, denounced the Islamic-rooted government today over its plans to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic headscarves in universities – a move the foreign minister said would expand Turkish freedoms.

The government has defended its plan as a reform needed to bring Turkey in line with European Union human rights guidelines, but many including the country’s influential military establishment see the move as a serious threat to the country’s secular traditions.