Headscarves now allowed in Turkey's police force

Turkish police women in uniform have been allowed to don headscarf on duty, reports said. Restrictions on the uniforms of the police women have been removed in the new regulations, recently published in the Official Gazette.

Authorities are to allow women in uniform to wear a headscarf on duty. Women wearing Islamic headscarf have been allowed to join police forces in the frame of the new uniform regulations.

This move aims to expand the scope of the democratization package, led by the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lifted the decades-old ban on Sept. 30, 2013 on the headscarf in the state institutions as part of a democratization package to improve freedom. In that era, Erdoğan's move was widely seen as a challenge to the country's secular traditions.

After the ban was lifted, four fellow AK Party law makers -- Nurcan Dalbudak, Gülay Samancı, Gönül Bekin Şahkulubey and Sevde Bayazıt Kaçar,-- wore their headscarfs in the Parliament on October 31, 2013.

When AK Party took a strong lead municipal elections in March 30, 2014, two headscarf-wearing candidates ensured to have the office of mayor in the district's offices. The headscarves were banned in Parliament until late 2013 until the election of the headscarved mayors is considered a vital moment in Turkey's history as a secular republic.