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Headscarves are now much more widely seen in Turkey
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A ban on female army officers in Turkey wearing the Muslim headscarf has been lifted by the government.
The
military is the last Turkish institution to see the ban removed. It has
long been seen as the guardian of Turkey's secular constitution.
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Islamic groups have lobbied hard for wider acceptance of headscarves
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Wearing headscarves in public institutions was banned in the 1980s. But Turkey's Islamist-leaning President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, argues that the ban is an illiberal vestige of the past.
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Women in Turkey's police and security forces may now wear headscarves
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The issue has been controversial in Turkey for many years. Secularists
regard the headscarf as a symbol of religious conservatism and have
accused President Erdogan of pushing an Islamist agenda, converting many
public schools into religious ones as part of his pledge to raise "a
pious generation".
Over the past decade the ban has been removed for schools, universities, the civil service
and in August for the police.
The
BBC's Mark Lowen, in Istanbul, says the secular side of Turkey now
feels largely ostracised, accusing Mr Erdogan of governing just for his
conservative, religious support base.