Fears for Turkish Ruling Party As Court Overturns Headscarf Law

Turkey's highest court yesterday overturned a politically controversial law allowing women students to wear the Muslim headscarf at university, dealing a blow to the country's Islamist-leaning government and its chances of survival.

In a decision with significant implications for Turkey's future, the constitutional court upheld an appeal from opposition parties that the law - passed by parliament in February - posed a threat to its 85-year-old secular system.

The headscarf issue has become one of the most highly charged in Turkish politics, with the ruling justice and development party (AKP) seeing it as a question of religious freedom, while opponents portray it as a potential gateway to a more Islamic society. Hijab-wearers have complained of being expelled from classes by professors, while others have worn wigs to get around the ban.

The ruling was a setback for the AKP, which is embroiled in a separate case - also before the constitutional court - to outlaw the party and ban its officials from politics for alleged anti-secular activity.

"This is the harshest decision the court could have reached," said Soli Ozel, an analyst at Istanbul's Bilgi university. "It gives us a clear sense of how the court is going to vote on the closure case."

Banning the party could plunge Turkey's political system into turmoil, while further jeopardizing its already fraught attempt to join the European Union. The European commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, has warned that the country's application could be frozen if the AKP is outlawed.

The AKP has won over many European officials by espousing a democratizing agenda seen as key to Turkey's EU membership.

But its domestic critics argue that the party's liberal rhetoric conceals an agenda of imposing an Islamic society by stealth.