A controversial decision on whether Turkey's new constitution will allow headscarves in universities will be left to the prime minister as a commission drafting the charter failed to reach agreement, media reported.
Secularists, including the powerful army, see the use of the headscarf at universities as a threat to the secular order. They accuse the newly re-elected AK Party, whose roots are in political Islam, of trying to undermine secularism, and the new constitution is seen as the next source of tension.
Although Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is known to favour lifting the ban, it is not clear which way he will decide now. The AK Party tried to loosen the ban on headscarves after coming to power in 2002 but abandoned the idea after secularist pressure.
Leading newspaper Hurriyet and CNN Turk reported on Sunday that the commission drafting the constitution could not agree on whether the new charter should allow headscarves in universities and so would leave it up to Erdogan.
The draft constitution will be discussed by the party leadership on Wednesday and presented to the public in the next week, AK Party Deputy Chairman Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat told reporters on Sunday, declining to give details on the contents.
"We have tried to create a constitution that will be accepted by all sectors of society," he said after three days of drafting by party members and academics at a country retreat.
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