Headscarved lawmaker takes the floor for first time at Turkish Parliament

ANKARA

Candemir Çelik speaks during the debate on the budgets of the Labor Ministry and the Transport Ministry at the General Assembly, Dec. 12. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

A headscarved lawmaker has taken the floor for the first time at a plenary session of the Turkish Parliament during a debate on the 2014 Central Governance Budget legislation.

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Bursa Deputy Canan Candemir Çelik made a speech from the rostrum, drawing the applause of lawmakers, during the discussion on the budgets of the Labor Ministry and the Transport Ministry.

Candemir Çelik was the fifth lawmaker to announce that she would don the headscarf during Parliamentary sessions after the ban was rescinded as part of the government’s democratization package announced on Sept. 31.

Four other AKP lawmakers, Sevde Bayazıt Kaçar, Gülay Samancı, Nurcan Dalbudak and Gönül Bekin Şahkulubey, have also chosen to attend Parliament wearing the headscarf. The AKP comprises of 46 female lawmakers among its ranks.

The attendance of headscarf-clad deputies to the General Assembly, some 14 years after the then Virtue Party (FP) lawmaker Merve Kavakçı was expelled from a general assembly of the Parliament, was followed by the removal of a ban on trousers for female deputies.