Turkish PM highlights democratic rights of women with head scarf

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday called for ensuring the full democratic right of females wearing head scarf, or hijab, to be treated on equal footing with other women. Turkey has to do away with the constraints puts on veiled women, he told reporters in the southern Adana city, where he attended the opening of universities which used to bar entry to female students wearing head scarf. The ban on head scarf at Turkish universities in the past forced many female students to study abroad at US and European universities, he noted. Erdogan voiced hope that female civil servants wearing hijab will be able to have access to the public offices in the near future under the planned democratic reforms. After a decade-long struggle with secular political parties, Erdogan's government was able to unban the head scarf gradually through the democratic constitutional reforms which proved to be very popular.