Plan to end headscarf ban in Turkey slammed

One of Turkey's top prosecutors has raised stiff objections to lifting a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities.

This slam to the plan is the latest statement in a simmering debate on a government plan to abolish the restriction.

'To place the use of an article of clothing into the scope of basic freedoms...will polarise students...and transform educational institutions into hives of activity against the secular, unitarian system,' said Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, chief prosecutor of the High Court of Appeals.

'Political parties cannot aim to change the secular nature of the Republic,' he said. 'It is obvious that using religion as a basis to define freedoms...will lead to polarisation and confrontation.'

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has said he intends to abolish the ban as part of a planned new constitution.

The AKP, the offshoot of a now-banned Islamist party, argues that the ban violates freedom of conscience and the right to education.

Secularists, including Turkey's influential army, senior judges and many top academics, counter that the headscarf is a symbol of defiance against Turkey's fiercely guarded secular system.

The planned change, they argue, will erode secular traditions and increase conservative social pressure on women to cover up.

In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the headscarf ban in Turkish universities was not a violation of basic freedoms and could be necessary to protect Turkey's secular order against extremist movements.

Public servants in Turkey are also barred from covering their heads.

Turkey's government is drafting a new constitution to replace the current one, a legacy of a 1980 military coup.