Headscarf Bans and the ECtHR: Balancing Secularism and Rights in Türkiye
by Ahmet Said Aydil
Question(s) at stake
Whether a ban on a university professor wearing the Islamic headscarf while performing her professional duties, and her being deemed to have resigned for continuing to wear it, violated her freedom of religion and constituted discrimination.
Outcome of the ruling
The European Court of Human Rights held that the ban on a university professor wearing the Islamic headscarf while performing her professional duties was justified by the principle of secularism and the requirement of neutrality for public servants in Türkiye. Consequently, it found the application alleging a violation of Article 9 of the ECHR to be manifestly ill-founded.
Country:
Official citation
Kurtulmuş v. Turkey, App. no. 65500/01, 24 January 2006
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion Laïcite Hijab Margin of appreciation Religious and cultural symbols Institutional / Organizational aspects Attire Termination of employment Types and actors Public sector Teachers
Tag(s):
Secularism Laiklik Deemed resignation
Bibliographic information
Access case report
View case report in the CUREDI databaseAbout the authors
Ahmet Said Aydil (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department Law and Anthropology, Germany)
Ahmet Said Aydil is a PhD Candidate in the Law and Anthropology Department at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkiye). Following his graduation, he completed his legal internship, working in areas such as commercial law, international arbitration law, criminal law, and administrative law. In 2020 he passed the Turkish Bar and became a licensed attorney.
Aydil also holds an LLM from the Europa Institute, Saarland University, in International and European Human Rights Protection Law and European Economic Law. Under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Thomas Giegrich, his master’s thesis analysed the decline in human rights commitmens in Europe, driven by the rise of populist politics and the mishandling of the refugee influx of 2015, and evaluated potential remedies at the European Union and Council of Europe levels. His current research falls within the framework of the database project “Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe” (CUREDI) at the MPI.