A United Nations body focused on discrimination against women has rejected a complaint filed by Rahime Kayhan, a teacher who lost her position in Türkiye for refusing to remove her Islamic headscarf. The panel ruled the case fell outside its mandate, since Kayhan framed her complaint as a violation of religious freedom rather than gender-based discrimination.
Before turning to the UN, Kayhan had exhausted domestic legal channels in Türkiye, where authorities consistently held that wearing the headscarf while teaching was impermissible. Officials also maintained the practice was not a matter of personal religious conscience but an attempt to pressure others.
The case followed a similar trajectory to that of Leyla Sahin, whose expulsion from Istanbul University for wearing a headscarf was ultimately upheld by the European Court of Human Rights. After that ruling, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly stated he would comply but disagreed with the decision on rights grounds, suggesting religious doctrine should inform such judgments.
Columnist Oktay Eksi, writing in Hurriyet, argued that both cases reflect an effort by some to have society accept conduct that courts in Türkiye and international tribunals alike have repeatedly declined to endorse.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in April 2006, in its own words.