Turkish Parliament Lifts Trouser Ban For Women

The decision comes after a landmark ruling in the secular state to allow female MPs to wear the Islamic headscarf.

 

Safak Pavey with Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton last ye

The Turkish parliament has lifted a ban on women politicians wearing trousers in the assembly.

The move comes after a landmark decision to allow female MPs to wear the Islamic headscarf.
The change in the rule for trousers came after an MP Safak Pavey from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) drew attention to the trouser ban during a parliamentary debate on the emotive headscarf issue.
The headscarf ban has long polarised opinion in the largely Muslim - but officially secular - Turkey.

Ms Pavey, who has a prosthetic leg, was banned from wearing trousers

Ms Pavey, elected to office in June 2011, has a prosthetic leg but parliament had rejected her previous request to be allowed to wear trousers because of regulations which specified that women should wear suits with skirts.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's ruling centre-right AK Party, which has Islamist roots, proposed the relaxation of the trouser ban and the opposition parties - the secularist CHP, the pro-Kurdish BDP and Turkish nationalist MHP - backed the plan and the measure was approved late on Wednesday.
The Turkish parliament witnessed historic scenes at the end of October when four AKP female politicians wore headscarves for the first time in the assembly.

MPs Nurcan Dalbudak (l) and Sevde Beyazit Kacar (r) wearing headscarves

The headscarf is viewed by secularists as an emblem of political Islam and thus a threat to the republic's secular identity, but the AK Party has argued that the restrictions on its use violate the principle of religious freedom.
Secularists made only subdued protests to the move, highlighting a shift in attitudes in Turkey about religion after more than a decade of AKP rule.
The headscarf ban has also been lifted in other state institutions as well as parliament.