Turkey lifts ban on wearing hijab in the military

FIle photo of two young women in headscarves attending a pro-government demonstration outside the city hall in Istanbul. Turkey's army is lifting a historic ban on female officers wearing the Islamic headscarf in the officially secular country, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on February 22, 2017. Aris Messinis/AFPShow less

Istanbul // Turkey will lift a historic ban on female officers wearing the hijab in the armed forces.

The military was the final Turkish institution where women were prohibited from wearing the headscarf, after reforms by the religiously conservative government under president Recep Tayyip Erdogan that has allowed it to be worn in education, politics and the police.

The move, ordered by the defence ministry, applies to female officers working in the general staff and command headquarters and branches, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Wednesday.

Women may wear the headscarf underneath their cap or beret so long as it is the same colour as their uniform and does not cover their faces.

The reform will come into force once it is published in the official gazette. It will also apply to female cadets, but it was not immediately clear if it applies to women on combat missions.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), cofounded by Mr Erdogan, has long pressed for the removal of restrictions on women wearing the headscarf.

Speaking at his offices in Ankara, prime minister Binali Yildirim said he believed the removal of the ban was “very positive”.

The military has traditionally been seen as the strongest bastion of secular Turkey and had been traditionally hostile to any religious symbols being on display in state institutions.

But its political power has ebbed after the government increased control over the armed forces since the failed military coup in July, blamed on followers of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Turkey lifted a ban on the wearing of the hijab, on university campuses in 2010. It allowed female students to wear the headscarf in state institutions from 2013 and in high school in 2014.

Female MPs meanwhile began to wear headscarves in parliament from October 2013 when four female AKP MPs wore the hijab in a session, in contrast to the scenes in 1999 when a headscarf-wearing MP from the defunct Virtue Party was heckled out of the chamber.

And in August, Turkey allowed policewomen to wear the headscarf as part of their uniform.

*Agence France-Presse