Higher Education Board (YÖK) head Yusuf Ziya Özcan has said the controversial ban on the Muslim headscarf could be lifted through existing laws and that amending the Constitution is not required to bring about such a change.

“We do not need a constitutional amendment. We are against the idea of sending students out of class due to their attire,” he said on Tuesday while at the inauguration ceremony of the new academic year at Turgut Özal University in Ankara. YÖK has recently been engaged in efforts to settle the long-standing headscarf issue by which thousands of female students have been denied the right to access higher education in Turkey. The headscarf ban is a product of the postmodern military coup instigated on Feb. 28, 1997, in which the coalition government of the time was forced to step down.The ban affects university students as well as those working in the public sector. Women with headscarves are not allowed to enter military facilities, including hospitals and recreational areas belonging to the Turkish military.In 2008, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) passed a constitutional amendment package that would have lifted the ban on wearing the headscarf on university campuses. However, upon an appeal by the Republican People's Party (CHP), the Constitutional Court annulled the amendment.The YÖK head also said his board may send circulars to universities in order to warn teachers not to send students who are not dressed in a manner consistent with the dress code out of class. The board recently sent such a circular to the İstanbul University. In the circular, YÖK argued that records should be taken against a student who attends university courses in attire against the dress code, but the student should not be ordered out of class.The circular came in response to a complaint filed by a university student at the department of medicine at İstanbul University. Zeynep Nur İncekara, the student, was sent out of class twice by a professor after she insisted on wearing a hat inside on Nov. 18 and Nov. 24, 2009. The student was hoping to cover her hair with a hat instead of a headscarf. The use of a hat as an alternative to a scarf is common in Turkey's universities. After she was ordered out of class, İncekara filed a complaint against her professor at the dean's office. The dean, however, said he could not help as the student's attire violated the university's dress code. Students in Turkey are forced to take their headscarves off when entering university campuses. The headscarf ban is a product of the 1997 postmodern coup. Undeterred, the student forwarded her complaint to the Prime Ministry's Human Rights Directorate. She argued that she was denied her right to higher education. The director asked YÖK for advice. In response, the board said a student cannot be sent out of class due to her attire, and, if necessary, an official record of what occurred could be taken against the student who was ordered out of class.“This decision will set an example. All universities will abide by this principle. We cannot accept students being sent out of class for one reason or another,” Özcan told reporters.Human rights activist Fatma Benli, also İncekara's lawyer, said the YÖK decision was “reiteration of a legal fact.” She said university lecturers did not have the authority to send students out of class due to their attire.“Zeynep was ordered out of class by a professor who wanted her to show her hair. She applied to the Prime Ministry's Human Rights Directorate and wanted authorities to end violations of her right to higher education. And YÖK declared that no one has the right to send university students out of class due to their attire,” Benli noted.İncekara expressed happiness at the fact that university authorities will no longer see themselves as entitled to order students out of class just because they do not like the way they are dressed. “But I will be completely happy when the headscarf ban is lifted entirely,” she added.Benli recommended that university students file complaints at the Prime Ministry's Human Rights Directorate and with YÖK if they are not allowed to enter university campuses or attend courses because of their attire. 06 October 2010, WednesdayTODAY'S ZAMAN  İSTANBUL