New changes legalize headscarves for public officials, discontinue national oath

ANKARA – Hürriyet

DHA Photo

The headscarf ban for public officials has been officially lifted, while the national oath has been removed from schools, one week after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised the changes in a much-anticipated democratization package.

The government has officially lifted the ban on wearing a headscarf for public-sector workers and ended the reading of the national oath, which non-Turks have criticized for its nationalist language, in the country’s schools.

Kurds and others have long been angered by much of the oath, which ends with the phrase “Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyene” (How happy is he who says “I am a Turk”).

According to the publication of the resolutions in the Official Gazette late Oct. 7, public officials will be permitted to don a headscarf, with the exception of officials wearing a uniform, while the student oath, which has been read out loud every morning for the past 80 years, has been removed.