Turkish politics crossed a major threshold on Oct. 31 when four women lawmakers wearing the headscarf attended parliament’s general assembly. Nurcan Dalbudak, Gonul Sahkulubey, Sevde Beyazit and Gulay Sabanci — all members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) — had decided to cover their heads while performing the hajj pilgrimage recently and announced that they would attend parliament with their hair covered thereafter.

The event may seem of little significance to the outside world unfamiliar with the scale of Turkey’s polarization, but it marks both the end of an era and the onset of fresh developments for Turkish politics.

Although as many as 61% of Turkish women cover their heads, veiled women were barred from public service until very recently. Until several years ago, they were barred also from enrolling in both public and private universities and could not enter any military facility — even if they were the wives of presidents and prime ministers.

Until Oct. 31, it was out of the question for a veiled woman to serve as a member of parliament. Memories were still fresh of the treatment accorded to Merve Kavakci, a veiled lawmaker from the now defunct Virtue Party (FP), at the parliamentary oath-taking ceremony in May 1999. “This is not a place to challenge the state. Please, put this lady in her place!” then-Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit called as noisy protests from the benches of his Democratic Left Party (DSP) forced Kavakci to leave parliament without being sworn in. Kavakci was then stripped of her parliamentary seat and Turkish citizenship on the grounds that she had simultaneously held US citizenship.