The court said that the ban was not a violation of human rights because it could be considered necessary to protect the democratic and secular system in Turkey against extremist movements.
"Case closed," headlined the mass-selling newspaper Hurriyet, while the popular Vatan trumpeted: "Court approval for the headscarf ban."
"From the legal viewpoint, the matter is closed without challenge," said Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who famously has refused to invite both the wives of both Erdogan and of foreign minister Abdullah Gul because they would have worn headscarves at his official receptions.
But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the court's decision as "contrary to freedom of religion and conscience, to freedom of education".
The court was petitioned by Leyla Sahin, who was excluded from medical studies at Istanbul University under a 1998 circular banning Islamic headscarves and beards.
Erdogan said that he would continue his campaign to get the ban lifted, saying: "You cannot eradicate people's rights with erroneous laws. Sooner or later those rights will become part of the law."
Foreign minister Abdullah Gul stressed that "the government is determined to scrap the ban".
But analysts said that the ruling of the Strasbourg-based ECHR verdict was a victory for the army-backed secular establishment in its long-running battle with the government over this issue.
Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), the offshoot of a now-outlawed Islamist movement, has pledged to lift the ban but, wary of the secular establishment, has so far refrained from such action.
The main opposition party and the Higher Education Council, which oversees universities, said that the ECHR ruling blocked the way for any legal arrangements to abolish the ban, although this was denied by some liberal politicians and jurists.
The ban on headscarves has been strictly enforced since 1997, when the army forced Turkey's first Islamist prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, to resign after his policies sparked fears that the secular system was in danger.
Women who cover their heads are also barred from public service and parliament.
The scarf is seen by the secular establishment as a public demonstration in favor of politicizing Islam, which the Turkish constitution rejects.
The ban has led to the expulsion of hundreds of students from universities, but also sparked tensions among the higher echelons of the state.
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has refused to invite veiled women, including the spouses of Erdogan and Gul, to state receptions at his palace, prompting boycotts by AKP members.
Gul's wife also appealed to the ECHR after being denied the right to enroll in university, but withdrew her suit after her husband became a government minister in 2002.
Erdogan has sent his two veiled daughters to study in the United States.
The ECHR ruling is the first concerning the Muslim headscarf and will serve as a precedent should similar cases emerge elsewhere - such as in France, where religious symbols were banned from public schools in 2004.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
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