Young women wearing Islamic-style headscarves have to go through a cubicle when they enter the gate to Ankara University's Divinity Faculty. When they reappear, on their way to class, they have unveiled or covered their headscarf with a wig.

The make-over is repeated daily under the watchful eyes of guards enforcing a ban on headscarves, forbidden in universities and public offices because they are seen as a fundamentalist political statement against the strictly secular system of this Muslim nation.

Barring the veil, it is hard to see a difference between stylish Turkish youths and the girls emerging from the cubicle. One, with her rasta wig and trendy leather coat, looks more likely to be heading for a clubber's party than a Koranic class.

"It feels very bad because I know I look ridiculous. I have no ideological intentions. I just want to obey the rules of my religion and attend my classes," said Derya Yildirim, 20, the hem of her red headscarf showing under the black wig.

Hafize Kontbay says bias against the headscarf can be witnessed everywhere: she was recently asked to leave the front row of a state television studio and sit in a "less visible" place during a live show.

Enforcement of the ban has been tightened since 1997, when the powerful military launched a harsh secularist campaign and ousted Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan after his rhetoric and policies sparked fears for the future of the secular state system.

Mass protests against the ban have failed to impress the authorities and, according to rights activists, an estimated 2,000 students who refuse to take off the veil are currently unable to attend university.

With the November 3 general elections, the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party, which advocates religious freedoms, is leading in opinion polls.

But dreading the ire of the generals, the party now says the headscarf problem will not be a priority if it comes to power.

"I trust no political party, and I do not think this issue will be resolved any time soon," said Nurcan Elmas as she adjusts her veil after leaving the Divinity Faculty building.

Her friend Esra Apaydin is quick to point out that the Nationalist Movement Party, a partner in the outgoing coalition of secularist Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, forgot its 1999 election pledge to resolve the headscarf issue as soon as it came to power.

For Husnu Ondul, the head of the Human Rights Association, the ban is a "clear indication that Turkey is not democratic."

It should be seen as a violation of human rights by a country seeking to join the European Union (EU), he said.

But the EU, which often criticizes Turkey for human rights breaches, has shown almost no interest in the headscarf issue.

In 1993, the European Court of Human Rights turned down lawsuits by two Turkish students against their universities, saying human rights norms do not give people automatic freedom to follow religious precepts.AFP