Turkiye's Erdogan proposes a referendum on right to wear headscarf

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has suggested the Constitutional change to guarantee the right to wear a headscarf in the civil service, schools and universities should be decided through a referendum, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Erdogan invited the opposition party leader to a headscarf referendum.

“If you have the courage, come on, let’s put this to a referendum,” he said in a televised address.

“Let the nation make the decision,” Erdogan added, speaking to the leader of the main opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who had initially proposed a law to guarantee the right to wear the headscarf in a bid to resolve what he said was “deep polarisation”.

In response, Kilicdaroglu, on Saturday night, rejected the idea of a referendum.

The debate over the headscarf in Turkiye has recently heated up as there is a general election next year.

Turkiye has long been a country where wearing a headscarf was banned in public institutions due to secularism, according to its Constitution.

READ: Erdogan calls for hijab rights to be made constitutional