Turkey - CHP deputy takes scarf freedom in public service to Council of State.

Turkey - CHP deputy takes scarf freedom in public service to Council of State.(TZ).

A deputy from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) on Friday took a new regulation that eliminates a ban on the wearing of Islamic headscarves for public employees to the Council of State, demanding its cancellation on the grounds that the new practice will lead to “irrevocable” damage and “runs contrary to the law.”

Public employees in Turkey other than those in the military, judiciary and police force, began to enjoy the freedom of wearing headscarves to work early this week after a government-sponsored reform package, announced by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sept. 30, made this possible.

Turkey's ban on headscarves in public service dates back to the 1980s. After the 1980 coup d'état, a regulation that defined the permissible dress code and appearance of public sector employees included the stipulation that the hair of civil servants must not be covered. Women who wear headscarves were effectively denied the right to employment by the state.

CHP İstanbul deputy Mahmut Tanal, who is also a member of Parliament's Human Rights Commission, demanded in his petition to the Council of State that the new regulation runs contrary to law and its implementation will lead to “irrevocable” damage.

His petition seeks an immediate stop to the new practice and then its cancellation on these grounds.According to Tanal, the regulation violates the second article of the Turkish Constitution, which addresses equality before the law.

He feels that public officials, as representatives of the state, should not wear or carry any religious symbols because this would undermine their impartiality.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who has deemed the government's reform package insufficient, has so far remained silent about headscarf freedom in public service, yet he has not stopped the neo-nationalist deputies in his party who label the reform “a counter-revolution.”

In a similar move in 2008, the CHP petitioned the Constitutional Court to annul approved constitutional amendments that would allow students to attend universities classes while covered. The court later annulled the amendments, leading to great public disappointment.Until 2010, students wearing headscarves were not allowed to enter universities in Turkey.