The Islamic headscarf is being introduced into schools in the occupied territories of Cyprus, causing a storm of reaction in the Turkish Cypriot community. The decision is another step towards the Islamization of the occupied territories, which has been the policy of the Erdogan government in recent years.

Avrupa writes in a report that the so-called education ministry and the “cabinet” quietly amended the current “disciplinary regulation”, paving the way for girls under 18 to wear headscarves in school, “in other words, paving the way for religious bullying through children”, in the newspaper’s words.

According to the “cabinet” decision published in the “official newspaper” of the occupation regime, girls under the age of 18 will be allowed to wear headscarves/turbans at school.

The text of the amendment on the headscarf is as follows:

“If students wish to cover their heads because of their religious beliefs, they may cover their heads only by placing a bandana over the hat. There cannot be any shape, pattern, writing, symbol or mark on the hat and bandana. The hat and bandanna must be plain and monochrome in harmony with the school uniform.”

Reactions

The development has caused a storm of reactions, according to reports in the Turkish Cypriot press.

The president of the “guild” of secondary school teachers (“KTOEÖS”) Selma Eilem pointed out that the “cabinet silently took the decision overnight to amend the disciplinary regulation to allow primary school children, middle school and high school students to cover their heads” and added that her guild “will continue to fight against this new dimension of the attack and the imposition of a political regulation which was changed in a way that is not in accordance with the law and only this article was added”.

She noted that she herself is an advocate of Ataturk’s principles and went on to say: “With the theological faculty, Quran courses, institutions, associations, sect structures […] and other similar ones, the missionary work in the name of cultural agreements and the appointment of teachers wearing religious symbols, what the Justice and Development Party (AKP) wants to do in our country, as in Turkey, is religious conservatization in education, to raise a religious generation, to create a social model that does not question and obey. […] Attempts are being made to destroy tolerance, to divide and turn people against each other.”

Havadis writes that the “guild” of Turkish Cypriot teachers (“KTÖS”) called it “unacceptable” that the so-called Ministry of Education is introducing a new “regulation” on the wearing of headscarves in schools by amending the “disciplinary regulation” and expressed the view that this was done “through an illegal procedure, contrary to the principle of secularism and creates problems regarding the rights of children.”

The KTÖS demanded the immediate withdrawal of the amendment saying that otherwise it would wage a “legal” and trade union struggle against it.