The day had started out well for Muğla Fethiye İmam Hatip High School student Büşra Pirci. Her father saw her off on the school bus that was to take the high school junior and her classmates on a trip to Çanakkale as part of the Republic Educational Trips program sponsored by the Education Ministry's Muğla Directorate. Teachers took a head count and then took group pictures to put on the directorate's Web site before the bus set out on its way. Fifteen minutes later, an aide reportedly came up to Büşra and told her that she should remove her headscarf when they arrived at their destination to avoid any trouble.
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“You're fine on the bus, but at the places we're going to visit and stay at you'll have to uncover your head,” Pirci says she was told. The aide then told her that if she wanted she could get out of the bus before they got any further. The bus stopped, and a vehicle from the education directorate picked her up to take her back to the school in central Muğla, from where the group had departed. Pirci says that nobody said a word to her about any complications her headscarf might present either in the days leading up to the trip or at school before they left.
As of yesterday afternoon, the Education Directorate could not be reached for comment.
