Turkey’s main opposition party filed an appeal today with the country’s constitutional court, seeking to overturn two amendments, approved this month by parliament, that eased a ban on the wearing of head scarves at universities by observant Muslim women, the Reuters news agency reported.

The party had pledged to take legal action to overturn the amendments, which were signed into law last Friday by President Abdullah Gul, the Associated Press reported.

There were scattered reports of students’ wearing scarves on campuses in the immediate aftermath of the measures’ passage, and since Monday women across the country have attempted to do so, despite confusion about whether the constitutional changes alone are enough to legalize such actions. Even the government, which orchestrated the new policy, initially urged students not to force the issue until all applicable laws had been changed, referring to anticipated revisions in the Higher Education Law.

In Istanbul, especially, some universities have continued to prevent women wearing scarves from entering their campuses, leading to some protests.

The new chairman of Turkey’s Higher Education Board, a government body that oversees all of the country’s universities and is responsible for the higher-education law, said that no further legal actions were required to allow students to wear head scarves. Nine members of the board, which has historically been a staunchly secular supporter of the head-scarf ban, issued a statement contradicting the chairman.

In an interview, the chairman “said he will take legal action against university rectors who insist on upholding a ban on head scarves at universities and refuse to allow covered women to attend classes,” the Turkish newspaper Zaman reported. —Aisha Labi