Turkey set to relax headscarf ban

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s government is expected to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic head scarves in universities on Saturday in a significant victory against the secular establishment.

In predominantly Muslim Turkey, which seeks European Union membership, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has channeled the frustration of devout masses who feel excluded from the establishment into political action.

We will end the sufferings of our girls at university gates, Erdogan said Thursday in reference to pious female students who have been forced to remove their head scarves at the entrance to campuses.

Some have attended classes wearing wigs.

The Parliament will hold brief debates and vote on two crucial amendments to the secular constitution to allow female students to wear head scarves on campus E-mail to a friend

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