New move to lift Turkey scarf ban
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Turkey's ruling party and a key opposition party agree to work to  lift a ban on headscarves in universities.
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A German federal court has ruled that a regional ban on Muslim teachers wearing headscarves in public schools must also apply to Christian nuns, news weekly Der Spiegel reported in an advance copy of its Monday ...
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Turkey cleared a hurdle on its long path toward European Union membership on Sunday when its parliament approved a new penal code which will boost women's rights and punish police more severely for torture.
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Turkey's prime minister on Wednesday challenged a ban on women wearing head scarves in universities and public offices, saying there is no need to wait for a constitutional change to remove the ban, state-run media said.
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ISTANBUL, Feb 4 (IPS) - Turkey's Islamic-rooted governing party is  moving ahead with hotly contested constitutional amendments that  would lift the ban on headscarves at universities. Opponents see  it as a danger-laden step undermining the currently rigid secular  regime by introducing Islamic principles that may extend far  beyond higher learning.
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The lifting of a ban on Islamic head scarves at universities faced fierce opposition from the secular establishment.
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The German state of Bavaria is the latest federal states to ban Muslim school teachers from wearing headscarves.
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The French government has confirmed that the ban on Muslim headscarves will be applied on Thursday when school resumes, despite the kidnapping of two journalists in Iraq.
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BEIRUT -- The militant demand that a French ban on Islamic head scarves be overturned has fueled a backlash among religious and political leaders in the Middle East, who have often been silent about hostage slayings and other terrorism.
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Turkey's plans to lift a ban on Islamic headscarves in universities has become a hot topic of conversation among young Turkish women in Berlin, home to western Europe's biggest population with Turkish roots.
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Turkey's Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party and a key opposition party agreed on Thursday to cooperate to lift a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in universities, a move sure to anger the secular elite.
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ISTANBUL -- It's the head scarf, stupid. If it weren't for a three-foot-square piece of fabric, sometimes black and stark but more often fancy or lacy, rosy pink or flowery, Turkey's 42 million voters wouldn't be going to the polls Sunday.
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Lawmakers voted early Thursday to approve a constitutional amendment allowing female students to enter universities wearing Islamic head scarves  -  a move that many secular Turks view as an attempt to impose religion on their daily lives
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for the lifting of a ban on women wearing headscarves at state universities. Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party began drafting a new constitution after its landslide election victory in July.  The separation of religion and state enshrined in the current constitution is one of the key issues in the debate.
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Two French journalists held hostage in Iraq have urged the French government to give in to their captors&#39; demand by revoking a law banning Muslim head scarves in public schools
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For some French Muslims, two worlds collided as the ban on wearing Islamic head scarves in public schools took effect. Many described Thursday as crunch day, when they were forced to question the meaning of being Muslim in a Roman Catholic country where life since Sept. 11, 2001, has become more tense and divisive.
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Turkey is preparing to amend a  controversial law on freedom of speech that has been criticized  repeatedly by the European Union and could slow EU accession  talks with Brussels.