Breaking: Turkey reverses female army officers' headscarf ban

A woman wearing a headscarf in Istanbul (04 June 2015)

Strong ban on female army officers in Turkey wearing the Muslim headscarf has been lifted by the government.

It has long been seen as the guardian of Turkey's secular constitution. The military is the last Turkish institution to see the ban removed.

Putting on headscarves in public institutions was banned in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, Turkey's Islamist-leaning President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, argues that the ban is an illiberal vestige of the past.

The issue has been controversial in Turkey for many years.

Turkish demonstrators raise their hands during a protest organised by pro-Islamic groups outside the Middle East Technical University in Ankara (07 September 2013)

Secularists regard the headscarf as a symbol of religious conservatism and have accused President Erdogan of pushing an Islamist agenda, converting many public schools into religious ones as part of his pledge to raise "a pious generation".

News reaching us that the BBC's Mark Lowen, in Istanbul, says the secular side of Turkey now feels largely ostracised, accusing Mr Erdogan of governing just for his conservative, religious support base.

The conservatives respond that they were long seen as second-class citizens and the headscarf is an expression of individual liberties.

Our correspondent says that Turkey's religious-secular divide is as old as the republic itself, but is now arguably deeper than ever.