Turkey’s military on Wednesday lifted its ban on the headscarf or hijab for all female army personnel.
The move applies to all women officers working as general staff and also in command headquarters and branches.
Turkey’s government at the time first imposed the ban in 1978, preventing civil servants from wearing hijab at work.
With World Hijab Day tomorrow, we explain Turkey’s battle with headscarf bans pic.twitter.com/Po89fdECOB
— TRT World (@trtworld) January 31, 2017
In 1982, Turkey's Board of Higher Education banned hijab at universities.
The Turkish Security Council moved on February 28, 1997 to ban hijab inside all public institutions, although the civil service and political spaces were the key target.
Merve Kavakci, an MP who wore hijab, was forced out of parliament on May 2, 1999, 20 days after she was elected, for refusing to bow to the security council's edict.
The AK Party came into power in 2002. One of its policies has been to lift the ban on hijab.
The Higher Education Board lifted the hijab ban for university students in 2007. In 2013, government employees were granted the right to wear hijab at work.
Since August 2016, women in the police force have been permitted to wear hijab while on duty.
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