The headscarf issue is among the most hotly contested fronts in Turkey’s culture war. Tensions have increased since February 22, when constitutional changes aimed at lifting the headscarf ban received presidential approval. That prompted secularists to press a lawsuit, which the country's Supreme Court has agreed to consider, seeking a ban of the governing Justice and Development Party. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul on Turkey's heated headscarf debate.
Part 1: Turkey's Creationist Movement 
Part 2: Turkey's Headscarf Debate
Turkey: Headscarved Graduate Students Lead Libertarian Movement
BY NICHOLAS BIRCH
Two Turkish headscarf-wearing graduate students, Neslihan Akbulut and Hilal Kaplan, constitute an unlikely pair of revolutionaries. Against the backdrop of the country’s divisive debate over the lifting of a university headscarf ban, the duo is pressing ahead with a petition drive that seeks a radical expansion of civil rights.
more turkey headlines