HÜDA PAR (Free Cause Party) Chairman Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu called for a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to wear headscarves for women.

HÜDA PAR Chairman Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu, who met with Turkish expatriates in Mainz, Germany, made evaluations about the headscarf issue, which has been the key issue on Turkey's political agenda for years.

“Before we founded our party, we always said that the right to wear headscarves should be under a constitutional guarantee while carrying out NGO activities. Hijab is a divine command given by Allah the Almighty. The fact that someone fulfills that order and someone does not do so does not change this fact,” Yapıcıoğlu said.

“There have been some problems with the headscarf in Turkey before. The hijab is banned in public buildings because it was considered a religious symbol. We want a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to wear headscarves for women,” Yapıcıoğlu added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the constitutional change to guarantee the right to wear a headscarf in the civil service, schools, and universities should be decided through a referendum.

Edoğan’s call came after the chairperson of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu had proposed a law to guarantee the right to wear the headscarf in a bid to resolve what he described as a “deep polarization”.

The headscarf was banned in public institutions because of the 'public clothing regulation' issued after the 1980 coup and began to be implemented in a radical way after the 1997 military memorandum.

The ban on the headscarf for public personnel was lifted by the democratization package on 1 October 2013 and with the amendment made in article 5 of the dress code regulation, restrictive provisions were lifted.

These were in accordance with the Kemalist ideology, with a strict appliance of laïcité in the constitution.

The issue of the headscarf debate has been very intense and controversial since its ban, along with other prominent religious symbols, in public buildings such as government institutions and public schools.

More than 99 percent of the population is Muslim. The Holy Qur'an instructs Muslim women and men to dress modestly, and the hijab is worn by Muslim girls and women to maintain modesty and privacy from unrelated males. (ILKHA)