ANKARA — A Turkish court has ruled to allow women lawyers to wear Islamic-style head scarves in court, repealing another ban on religious dress in the predominantly Muslim but secular country. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government, which advocates greater freedom of religious expression, has lifted strict restrictions on head scarves worn at universities and relaxed bans on religious dress in schools. Civil servants are still barred from wearing head scarves but the court's ruling Thursday removes that ban for lawyers in court rooms. Some secular-minded Turks regard such moves as an affront to secularism. The ruling comes after a lawyer petitioned the court to cancel the ban when her application to renew her bar membership was rejected over a photograph in which she wore the head scarf. — AP
