Turkish historian on trial over headscarf "insult"

ISTANBUL, Nov 1 (Reuters) A 92-year-old historian stands trial in EU-applicant Turkey today for allegedly insulting Muslim women in a book where the author links the headscarf to prostitutes in ancient Sumerian culture.

The trial is the latest to challenge the level of freedom of expression in the secular but predominantly Muslim country.

Journalists, writers and academics are frequently prosecuted for insulting concepts held dear by Turks, such as Turkish identity or the founder of republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The European Union wants Ankara to amend some laws which it considers limit freedom of speech.

''To me it's like being at a play,'' Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, a Sumerian historian, told Reuters ahead of her trial on charges of insulting religious honour and inciting hatred and enmity.

''This is the first court case brought against academic work.'' The Sumerians were among the first settled societies considered a civilisation, ruling southern Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq, from 3000 to 2000 BC.

Cig, who has translated some 3,000 stone tablets and published her findings last year, faces a prison sentence of up to three years if convicted of all charges.

Lawyer Yusuf Akin brought the case against Cig saying her conclusions about the headscarf insulted Muslim women.

SUMERIANS In her book ''My Reactions as a Citizen'' Cig said headscarves were worn by women who worked as prostitutes in temples during the Sumerian period to differentiate them from women who worked primarily as priests.

Females often presided over the temples in the polytheistic society, Cig said.

''The beginnings of the headscarf can be found among the Sumerians,'' Cig wrote in her book, although she did not say it was the same style of headscarf worn by devout Muslim women.

Fellow Turkish sumerologist Nafiz Aydin said he has also examined the stone tablets and agrees with Cig's findings.

''In those times those who did this kind of (prostitution) work hid themselves and it is predictable that according to law they covered their heads,'' Aydin said in a letter to the Istanbul court where Cig will be tried.

''If it needs to be, my findings should be rejected with another scientific article, but they've been met with reactions related to faith, they've politicised them,'' said Cig.

REUTERS MS BD0825