UN Wants Headscarf Issue Solved within 3 Years

Published: Tuesday, October 25, 2005

UN Wants Headscarf Issue Solved within 3 Years

By Habib Guler
zaman.com
 

 The United Nations (UN) has brought the ban on wearing headscarves in Turkish universities to the agenda. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), an association under the UN umbrella, included the headscarf problem in their report about Turkey.

The report stressed that there is discrimination against female students wearing headscarves and says the committee is worried about the effect of the ban on female students. In the recommendation report, the issues of discrimination against women are listed and a solution on the matter is called for within three years.

The recently prepared report regarding Turkey also points out the steps taken by the government towards the removal of the discrimination against women. The report praises their efforts on the education of women while criticizing the ban on the scarf. The effect of the ban on students is found to be precarious and the responsibility of the state to provide women access to every stage of education was stressed. The report recommended that the state should take the effect of the ban into consideration and recommended that the problem be sorted out by the beginning of 2009.

The association director, who works as the secretariat of the CEDAW in Turkey, revealed at a dinner organized by the research committee that the report will be made public in a symposium in parliament on 23 December. Meanwhile, leftist parliamentarians attending the dinner say they are opposed to the 33rd and 34th articles of the report regarding the headscarf issue.

Ankara
 

Source: Zaman Online