Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Tuesday that his country’s ban on women wearing head scarves at universities should be lifted. His comments, to foreign correspondents based in Turkey, were reported by the Financial Times. “The right to higher education cannot be restricted because of what a girl wears,” he said. “There is no such problem in Western societies, but there is a problem in Turkey, and I believe it is the first duty of those in politics to solve this problem.”

Women have been barred from wearing head scarves at universities and other public arenas in Turkey since the early 1980s, when the government that took power following a military coup focused on the garment as an unacceptable sign of religious devotion at odds with the staunchly secular rule it sought to promote. The ban was upheld in 2005 by the European Court of Human Rights, although groups such as Human Rights Watch have said the restriction “inhibits academic freedom.”

Mr. Erdogan’s political roots are Islamist, and his party won a sweeping electoral victory in July, paving the way for its nomination as president of Abdullah Gul, whose political roots are also Islamist.

Reaction to Mr. Erdogan’s comments from Turkey’s secular establishment was swift. The Council of Higher Education, a government-financed organization that oversees the country’s universities, reportedly convened a special meeting, and its president condemned any proposed change in the law. “It is our mission to remind the public that any constitutional regulation that would abolish restrictions on clothing is illegal,” the Associated Press quoted him as saying. —Aisha Labi