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Turkey debates the lifting of its ban on head scarves

The government's decision this week to lift a ban on women wearing head scarves in universities raised a troubling question: Is Islam starting to erode Turkey's secular democracy?

But in Turkey, looks are often deceiving. A majority of Turks see the measure -- submitted on Tuesday to Parliament, where it is expected to be approved -- as good for both religion and democracy.

Here, the most observant citizens have been the most active democrats, while the staunchly secular old guard -- represented by the military and the judiciary -- has acted by coup and court order.

The paradox goes to the heart of modern Turkey, a vibrant Muslim democracy of 70 million between Europe and the Middle East. Its elected governments have never fully run the country. They are watched by a coterie of generals and judges who inherited power from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the brilliant, autocratic former general who created modern Turkey in 1923 from Ottoman remains.

The system he set up was secular but divided by class; the urban elite has intervened when it thought political leaders elected by the poorer, observant heartland were veering off course.

Now, for the first time, that underclass, represented by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, is challenging the old order. His proposal on head scarves is likely to have broad support.

"It should be known that we are not working for anything else other than to stop the unjust treatment against our girls at university entrances," Erdogan said on Tuesday.

The leader of the secular opposition party, Deniz Baykal, played on familiar fears.

"Moves to end the head scarf ban are aimed at the very foundations of Ataturk's secular republic," Baykal said.

He added that the head scarf is "not part of our nation, history, traditions or culture."

For Hilal Kaplan, a graduate student who wears one, the talk sounds woefully outdated.

"It's like the ground cracked open and people from the 1930s crawled out," Kaplan said.
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