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Turkish military calls off war on headscarves, beards

Following a landmark court ruling, Turkey's military leaders have eased the strict rules governing the appearance of civilians entering military bases and other areas.
A girl holds a Turkish flag as army officers and their families visit the Anitkabir, mausoleum of the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, on Martyrs' Day in Ankara March 18, 2007. Ataturk is the revered founder of modern Turkey and the republic's first head of state. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (Turkey) - RTR1NN7T
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Headscarves have long been a symbol of the power struggle in Turkey between secular elites labeled as the "center" and a conservative segment labeled as the "periphery." The recent easing of this struggle and the trend toward normalization is be attributed mainly to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), which still is the most prominent representative of the center and softened its strict stance against headscarves. In a March 20 decision by the High Military Court, the TSK annulled its rigid practice of prohibiting first-degree relatives (spouse, children and parents) of TSK personnel from entering military premises, living quarters, military clubs and social facilities wearing headscarves.

The High Military Court's ruling concerns hundreds of thousands of female relatives of TSK personnel. Infantry noncommissioned officer Hakan Kayabasi had sued the Ministry of National Defense, which had rejected his application for a military ID card that would allow his wife to enter military housing on the grounds that she wore a headscarf in her photo on the application form. In its defense, the ministry surprised everyone by maintaining the ban on headscarves and asking that case be dismissed. But the court found Kayabasi's argument justified and the ban to be “against human rights and equality,” and ended the practice of denying ID cards to women relatives whose photographs contained headscarves.

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