ANKARA, March 11: A Turkish court on Tuesday ruled that the head of a top education watchdog had overstepped his brief by ordering universities to allow students to wear the Islamic headscarf on campus after a controversial legal amendment, the Anatolia news agency said.

The Council of State, Turkey’s top administrative court, suspended the order issued last month by Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, chairman of the Higher Education Board, handing a legal victory to academics who maintain the headscarf ban on campus.

The court said Ozcan had exceeded his powers by issuing the order, and did not pass any judgement on whether abolishing a ban on the headscarf in universities was constitutional or not, Anatolia reported.

A much-disputed constitutional amendment that lifted the ban is currently on the agenda of the Constitutional Court.

The amendment, spearheaded by the governing Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), was adopted by an overwhelming parliamentary majority on February 9, despite fierce objections that it would dent the secular system.

Only a handful of universities have allowed students wearing the headscarf on campus.

The majority maintain the ban, arguing that parliament should pass a supplementary bill to detail dress code rules and explicitly ban other covers such as the chador and burqa on campus.

The dispute has opened a deep rift within the academic community, and university rectors have called on Ozcan to resign. Students who cover up, meanwhile, have sued rectors who preserve the ban.

The AKP, the offshoot of a now-banned Islamist party, argues that the ban is a violation of the freedom of conscience and the right to education.

But secularist forces — among them the army, the judiciary and academics — see the headscarf as a symbol of defiance of Turkey’s secular traditions.

They argue that allowing the headscarf on campus will encourage conservatives to put pressure on women to cover up and challenge a similar ban in secondary education and government offices.—AFP