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Headscarf ban among TSK personnel, military students removed

Turkey's first headscarf-wearing pilot Merve Gürbüz

Turkey’s General Staff has sent a letter to the force commands in which it removes a ban on Islamic headscarves among Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) personnel and military cadets.

The General Staff told force commands that female officers and noncommissioned officers will now be allowed to wear headscarves.

The new rule also applies to military cadets.

In November, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government also abolished a ban preventing female civil servants from wearing headscarves and male civil servants in the TSK from growing beards.

The government amended the sixth article of a regulation in the civil servant dress code which went into effect in 1982 to abolish the headscarf and beard bans among TSK civil servants.

In August the Turkish government also abolished a ban that prohibited female police officers from wearing a religious headscarf while on duty.

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