Since 2002, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party have been chiseling away at the secular legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. But the AKP was dealt a blow today by the European Court of Human Rights. The court upheld the ban on wearing of Muslim veils in Turkish universities. From the BBC:

According to the court’s ruling, which is final, the headscarf ban is based on the Turkish constitution’s principles of secularism and equality.

In a society where men and women are equal, it said, a ban on religious attire such as the headscarf was justified on university premises.

“The court did not lose sight of the fact that there were extremist political movements in Turkey which sought to impose on society as a whole their religious symbols and conception of a society founded on religious precepts,” the court’s ruling added.

From the Financial Times:

The European Court of Human Rights found that the purpose of the restriction was “to preserve the secular character of educational institutions”. The ban, it said, met the “legitimate aims of protecting the rights and freedoms of others and maintaining public order”.

The decision has significant implications for the struggle between secularists and Islamists in Turkey and adds heat to a debate already raging in Ankara over whether a woman wearing the traditional Muslim headdress can represent “modern Turkey”.