Washington, USA - The United States supports women's right to wear Islamic headscarves in Turkey and considers Turkey among countries where Muslims' religious practice rights are restricted, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.
John Hanford, the U.S. State Department's ambassador at large for international religious freedom, told reporters here that Washington backed the rights of Muslims against restrictions on religious practice in several countries throughout the world, including Turkey.
"We've advocated for the rights of Muslims in many countries around the world, including Burma, India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, China, France, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Uzbekistan, and we've protested a host of different ways in which governments may restrict religious practice," Hanford said.
Giving specific examples from these countries, he said, "We've advocated for the right of women to choose to wear headscarves in France and Turkey."
In Turkey, women are not allowed to wear headscarves as an Islamic symbol in public service and in universities.
The State Department routinely mentions the religious headscarf ban in Turkey as a fact in its annual reports on religious freedoms throughout the world.
But Hanford's remarks marked the most obvious criticism of the Turkish state's position on the headscarf ban.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) favors the lifting of the headscarf ban in public service and in universities, but the pro-secular state establishment, led by the president [Ahmet Necdet Sezer] and the military, staunchly opposes such a move," said a Washington analyst.
"We work hard in our interactions with countries around the world to protect the religious freedom of Muslims of all Islamic traditions, regardless of a particular government's officially sanctioned interpretation or tradition of Islam," Hanford said.
"Harassment, restrictions on or persecution of peaceful religious practice are unacceptable and, in the end, work to exacerbate extremism and violence," he said.
Asked if the United States noticed any progress in the case of the "ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople," Hanford said: "We're continuing to work on them and I'm hopeful that there will be some progress. There was some news out of some progress just in the last couple of days."
He was apparently referring to a law passed last week by the Turkish Parliament that would improve property rights of religious minorities.
The religious foundations law was required by the European Union as part of Turkey's EU accession process.
The main minorities to be positively affected by the law are historic Greek Orthodox, Syriac and Armenian communities and also Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations.
Hanford listed Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan as countries where severe violations of religious freedom were seen.
Vietnam, which was in this list in the last two years, was not redesignated after taking many positive steps, he said.
Uzbekistan was added to the list this year.