Constitutional court releases full decision on headscarf ban ruling"

The Constitutional Court yesterday released its full ruling, including its legal reasoning, on a June case upholding the headscarf ban at universities. In the 20-page decision, the court underlined that the rules concerning headscarves have political and religious purposes and that changing them would exacerbate public polarization. Relaxing the ban for religious reasons might lead to pressure on believers or non-believers, or those who wear the scarves and those who don't, if the headscarves are used as a political symbol, it warned. "Some people might feel obliged to wear a headscarf, which violates freedom of conscience," it added. "In a state regime where the nation has sovereignty, there can be no room for divine will based on divine orders." The opinion continued, "In modern systems of law, sovereignty is based on human beings. Legislative changes concern worldly matters, not religious affairs. Laws cannot be based on religious foundations … Freedoms that are not in line with secularism cannot be defended and protected. Laws meant to protect secularism cannot be ignored. The headscarf is incompatible with the secular structure of knowledge." The statement also said the court had decided the case on the basis of substance, not as a procedural matter. When a law is contrary the fundamental principles of the republic, the court has the power to hear challenges to such laws only on the basis of substance, it said.