North Cyprus court annulled law allowing students wear hijabs in schools

The north Cyprus’s supreme court on Thursday ruled that the law which allowed the wearing of headscarves in public schools is unconstitutional, and as such annulled it.

As a result, the regulations regarding clothing at schools in north Cyprus has reverted to how it was before March, with no religious symbols or head coverings allowed to be worn by children attending public schools.

After the ruling was announced, Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ trade union (Ktoeos) leader Selma Eylem, who was visibly emotional, thanked the court for its decision, and also thanked teachers and their supporters for standing firm against the law, with thousands of Turkish Cypriots having taken to the streets to protest against it in the spring.

“We especially thank our teachers who fought despite all the pressure and threats, all the representatives of civil society organisations and political parties who stood by us, and our people who took to the streets to protect our girls,” she said.

Meanwhile, the union’s lawyer Oncel Polili said after the case had concluded that the north Cyprus’s current government “does not recognise the TRNC’s constitution”.

“They are trying to overthrow the constitutional order. The supreme court read three different decisions, all of which were in favour of the plaintiff. We will continue our fight,” he said.

The matter of headscarves first grabbed headlines in the spring, with the ruling coalition government having initially legalised the wearing of them to school in March.

It then faced a fierce backlash from teachers, the majority of whom are staunchly secular, before withdrawing the law and reinstating it the following month.

Turkish Cypriots rejected the law in large numbers, taking to the streets of Lefkosia in their thousands on three separate occasions, with numerous smaller such protests having taken place across north Cyprus in the meantime.

The matter even attracted an intervention on the part of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May.

“If you try to mess with our girls’ headscarves in the Turkish republic of northern Cyprus, I am sorry, you will find us against you,” he said.

One of the key battlegrounds during the saga was the Bekirpasha high school, which is located in Iskele, with teachers having been locked out of the school by the ‘education ministry’ in May as tensions reached a head over exam timetable changes brought about by the hijab controversy.

The exams had been cancelled in March when teachers refused to work after the ruling coalition legalised hijabs at schools, and a small number of children arrived at the Iskele school wearing religious garments.

One girl had even arrived at school wearing a black Chador – a full-body cloak which covers the body from head to toe, leaving only the face exposed. Meanwhile, a boy turned up in a taqiyah, which is a small round skullcap.

A further teachers’ strike notwithstanding; lessons had in general gone ahead thereafter with no children wearing head coverings allowed into the school.

In April, teachers at the same school had gone on a one-day strike, with Ktoeos leader Selma Eylem saying at the time that the school’s headteacher has been “calling teachers to his office and pressuring them” over the matter.

Additionally, she said, a letter was sent by the ‘education ministry’ to the school announcing that an investigation would be launched into the teachers’ refusal to teach children who had arrived at school wearing religious garments after the ruling coalition legalised it.