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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with his wife Emine (in 2019): voting on the headscarf
Photo:
Adam Altan / AFP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has brought a referendum into play in the debate about the headscarf in his country.
During a TV appearance, Erdoğan proposed a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would guarantee women's right to wear headscarves in public spaces.
The President had already presented the proposal to change the constitution a few weeks ago.
Passing such a change without a referendum would require a majority of 400 MPs in Parliament.
For this, Erdoğan's conservative AKP would have to rely on the social democratic opposition party CHP.
Sharper than the opposition
If that fails, the application could be presented to the citizens.
That's apparently what the President is aiming for.
"If this problem cannot be solved in Parliament, we will put it before the people," he stressed.
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The debate has flared up again against the background of the presidential and parliamentary elections next year.
The CHP apparently also wants to make a name for itself with one use per headscarf.
CHP opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu had proposed a law giving women the right to wear headscarves in public spaces.
This advance does not go far enough for Erdoğan.
The CHP leader wants to allay concerns that his party could reintroduce a headscarf ban if it wins the elections.
This is surprising given the CHP's secular tradition.
Apparently, the party also wants to win votes in the conservative electoral milieu of the AKP.
"We have made mistakes in the past about the headscarf," Kılıçdaroğlu explained.
The majority of Turkey's population is Muslim, and at the same time the separation of religion and state is enshrined in the constitution.
For a long time, women were banned from wearing the headscarf in state institutions.
Erdoğan's AKP abolished this ban in 2013.
SMS/AFP
