Turk president signs headscarf law, secularists upset

By Gareth Jones

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a landmark constitutional reform on Friday allowing female students to wear the Muslim headscarf at university despite strong objections by the country's secular elite.

Secularists, including army generals and judges, fear lifting the headscarf ban will undermine the separation of state and religion in Turkey. The main opposition party, the CHP, said it would appeal to the Constitutional Court to quash the reform.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling centre-right AK Party say lifting the headscarf ban was essential for religious freedom in Turkey, a candidate for European Union membership.

"The amendments do not conflict with the basic principles of the republic," Gul's office said in a statement which justified the amendments as an attempt to provide equal access for all citizens to higher education.

The approval of Gul, a former AK Party foreign minister, was never seriously in doubt, though secularists had argued that in the interests of national unity he should reject the bill.

The wives and daughters of Gul, Erdogan and many senior AK Party officials cover their heads.

Parliament voted to end the headscarf ban on Feb. 9 after the AK Party, which has Islamist roots, won the backing of a key nationalist party. But the issue has proved deeply divisive in Muslim but secular Turkey and has sparked large protest rallies.

The government must still amend a law governing the state body for higher education before the changes can take effect.