Female Turkish MPs wear head scarves in parliament for first time in 15 years

While there are no specific restrictions to bring the headscarf in Parliament, the opposition of the laity , and the prohibition of other state institutions , which rose this month , have deterred women before use.

It was expected and fellow AKP legislators Dalbudak Beyazit Sevde Kacar , and Gonul Samanci Bekin Gulay Sahkulubey to attend the general assembly Thursday afternoon wearing their headscarves .

Main opposition from Turkey and the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP ) has said it will challenge the measure . "All of our members agree , ie we believe the AKP is exploiting religion. Never going to remain silent to action to eliminate the principle of secularism " , CHP lawmaker said Reuters.She Dilek Yilmaz Akagun said the party had agreed to show their opposition in a " smart " , and it is unlikely that Parliament will witness a repeat of the chaotic scenes in 1999 when Merve Kavakci , a deputy of the Islamist Virtue Party , a predecessor of the AKP , wearing the headscarf to a takeover .

Bulent Ecevit , the prime minister of the time, went to the full assembly , saying : " This is not the place to challenge the state . Inform women of their limits " , while half of the chamber began to cry " Get out!out! " At Kavakci sitting .

The meeting was adjourned and Kavakci was forced to leave the camera without his oath. She was later stripped of his Turkish citizenship after it was discovered he had taken dual U.S. without informing the authorities. The Virtue Party was closed in 2001 because secular violates articles of the Constitution and several lawmakers, including Kavakci , were banned from politics for five years.
Nazli Ilicak , then a fellow Virtue Party deputy , who was sitting next to Kavakci in parliament before being expelled , welcomed the decision of the AKP parliamentarians "and said he did not expect a repeat of 1999 . " This is a positive development. I do not think there scenes similar to those of the incident Kavakci . People are now a little embarrassed by what they did in the past, the ads " Ilicak said.The legislators come just weeks after the AKP lifted a decades-old ban on women wearing the veil in public institutions State as part of a package of reforms the government says are intended to improve democracy . But the headscarf debate is at the heart of the tensions between religious and secular elites , a failure in Turkish public life . Restrictions headscarves in universities have already fallen under the AKP and critics of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan point of this and other policies , such as restrictions on alcohol sales as proof that his party is trying to undermine the secular order of the republic from the ruins of an Ottoman theocracy by Ataturk in 1923.

The supporters of Erdogan , whose wife also wears the headscarf , especially in strongholds pious Anatolian Turkey, say the Turkish leader is simply restore balance and the restoration of freedom of religious expression in the Muslim majority. Erdogan called on lawmakers to respect the decision .

"There is no law in Parliament by preventing this and everyone should respect the decision of our brethren in this topic . 've Been elected by the nation and are representatives of the nation in parliament," he said.

Some opponents have criticized the timing of the decision , saying they were intended to gain support before an election cycle , a charge rejected by Dalbudak said it was based solely on personal beliefs . "I am very happy and proud because I'm interested in making one of the main tasks required of me . 'm Experiencing inner peace because of this ," he said . " This has nothing to do with investing in an election.