The hallmark of a secular nation is its ability to limit the role of religion in political life. This most certainly does not require a ban on one sort of dress or another. India is a secular country, with 150 million Muslims, and female students are welcome to wear or not wear head-scarves and veils. Nor does India ban the wearing of turbans by Sikhs, or of crosses by Christians, or of sacred threads by Hindu Brahmins. Such dress codes should be an irrelevancy in a truly secular state.

The wearing of head-scarves in Turkey cannot make or break secularism. If a two-thirds majority in Turkey's democracy favors a relaxation of the current dress code, this cannot be construed as the imposition of political Islam or disappearance of secularism. Some secular Turks argue that this is the thin end of the wedge, and that the Islamicization of Turkey will inevitably follow. If this is really the case, then Turkish secularism is built on sand, and will collapse anyway.