FACTBOX: Policies on Muslim scarves and veils in Europe

(Reuters) - The wearing of Muslim face veils and headscarves in schools and at work is a sensitive topic across Europe. Here is a summary of policy in some key countries:

TURKEY

Mainly Muslim but secular Turkey has banned Islamic head-dress in universities and public offices. But parliament on Saturday resoundingly approved constitutional changes aimed at lifting a ban on female students wearing the Muslim headscarf in universities, the assembly's speaker said.

The Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party and a key opposition party agreed to cooperate to lift the ban, but have faced stiff resistance from the powerful secular elite which includes judges, army generals and university rectors.

Secularists see the garment as a threat to the country's strict separation of state and religion. Opinion polls show a majority of Turks back an easing of the ban in a country where about two-thirds of all women cover their heads.

Face coverings such as the Afghan-style burqa or Middle Eastern-style niqab are relatively rare in secular Turkey, which traditionally follows a moderate brand of Sunni Islam and where segregation of the sexes is very much the exception, not the rule.

NETHERLANDS

The Dutch government is set to retreat from a plan for a general ban on Muslim face veils but stop women wearing them in schools and government offices, media reported on Wednesday.

The cabinet has decided against a broad ban on the burqa or niqab in public as that would violate the principle of freedom of religion, the reports said.

The Muslim community says only about 50 women wear the head-to-toe burqa or the niqab, a face veil that conceals everything but the eyes. They said a general ban would heighten alienation among the country's about 1 million Muslims.

The previous centre-right Dutch government proposed a complete ban on face-veils in public, citing security concerns, but the centrist government that took power last year has taken a more conciliatory line on immigration.

FRANCE

France, with Europe's largest Muslim minority, banned headscarves from its state primary and secondary schools in 2004 under a law against conspicuous religious symbols that also included Jewish kippas and large Christian crosses. The government argued that wearing religious garb in state schools violated the legal separation of church and state. Supporters of the law also argued that impressionable young girls were forced to wear headscarves and the ban would help them decide for themselves if they wanted to cover their hair.

Women at university can wear headscarves, since they are adults. Teachers and other civil servants may not wear any religious symbols at work at all.

There were protests and warnings of unrest before the anti- headscarf law was passed, but it went into effect smoothly with very few girls being expelled from school for refusing to take off their headscarves.

BRITAIN