Grotesque:

Symbols matter, especially when they proclaim a sense of identity. This is why lifting a ban on head scarves for women in Turkey has been so contentious for secularists and observant Muslims alike. It was nevertheless a boon for both religious freedom and civil rights when the Turkish parliament voted this month to end the head-scarf prohibition in schools, amending a strict secularist constitution that was adopted after a military coup in 1980.

Both sides in this quarrel would be wise to stop obsessing over head scarves - and start cooperating on the reforms Turkey needs. Each camp in the head-scarf dispute distorts the other’s intentions. Ending the ban on head scarves serves the party’s interests by simultaneously making Turkey more like most European countries and keeping a campaign promise to its domestic base.

A truer confirmation of Turkey’s democratic vocation would be legislative action to redress the injustice done in the past when the state confiscated property from non-Muslim minorities. Above all, secularists and moderate Islamists need to work together to change the infamous Article 301 of the penal code, which allows the state to prosecute citizens for insulting “Turkishness.” By criminalising free speech, this anxiety about Turkish identity only identifies Turkey as an unfree country. — The Boston Globe