ISTANBUL—A controversial decision on whether Turkey's new constitution will allow headscarves in universities will be left to the prime minister as a commission drafting the charter failed to reach agreement, media reported.
Secularists, including the powerful army, see the use of the headscarf at universities as a threat to the secular order. They accuse the newly re-elected AK Party, whose roots are in political Islam, of trying to undermine secularism, and the new constitution is seen as the next source of tension.
Headscarves in mainly Muslim Turkey are banned in public buildings, universities and schools but some 60 percent of women cover their heads and the AK Party's grassroots supporters want the ban lifted.
Leading newspaper Hurriyet and CNN Turk reported on Sunday that the commission drafting the new constitution, which is due to replace a military era charter, could not agree on the issue and would leave the decision to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan's wife wears the headscarf and his daughter studied in the United States where she was allowed to cover up.
Erdogan himself is known to favour lifting the ban but it is not clear which way he will decide now. The AK Party tried to loosen the ban on headscarves after coming to power in 2002 but abandoned the idea after secularist pressure.
The wife of President Abdullah Gul — whose candidacy was opposed by the secularists — took Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights over the ban, while his daughter prompted controversy by wearing a headscarf at her graduation ceremony.
The draft charter is likely be presented to the public in early October, Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay was reported as saying. The party has says the draft will go to parliament early next year.
Plans to rewrite the constitution were part of the AK Party's manifesto for the July 22 parliamentary election, which it won with 47 percent of the vote. The party says the new draft will focus on individual freedom and improving democracy. It is also expected to weaken the powers of the army, which has removed four governments from power since 1960.
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