Turkey is to lift a ban on wearing the Muslim headscarf in public offices as it rolls back its secular founding principles.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister, risked criticism that he was opening the door to Islamism in Europe’s largest Muslim country even as he eased restrictions on the Kurdish minority.
The headscarf ban — in place since the inception of the Turkish Republic in 1924 — is a basic tenet of the strict separation of religion and State in modern Turkey.The ban was decried by the country’s Muslim majority, as well as some liberals who regarded it as a block on female employment.
A ban on the headscarf will still be in place for judges, prosecutors, the police and military personnel.
Mr Erdogan