Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s wife Sibel Tatar on Wednesday came out against the north’s ruling coalition’s legalisation of the wearing of hijabs at schools, and said she would have marched alongside the 13,000 Turkish Cypriots who demonstrated against the change on Tuesday night had she not attended a museum opening with her husband.

In a social media post, she said this week has seen “an unnecessary change in the regulations and the rightful reaction of the people to take to the streets”.

“Had it not been for the opening of the Cyprus doors and chests museum, the date of which was decided months ago … I would have been at the march, too,” she said.

She added that she is “not against the hijab” and said she had “strongly opposed” an old law in Turkey which used to prevent women wearing headscarves from entering universities.

However, she said, “I am also against the fact that girls who are not yet 18 years old, how are underage, often wear headscarves upon their families’ demand and study in classrooms where a picture of the great leader Ataturk is hung”.

“I am writing this with my conscience, for happy children and as a devout Turkish Cypriot woman who went on the Umrah in January and whose father went on the Hajj,” she added.

The Umrah is a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca which can be undertaken at any time of year, while the Hajj is an annual pilgrimage which takes place in the final month of the Islamic calendar.

Her comments came after ‘education minister’ Nazim Cavusoglu had insisted that the regulation, which was passed by the north’s cabinet for a second time on Tuesday night, is “not up for discussion”.

“The regulation which passed yesterday is not open to negotiation. It is finished,” he told the north’s public broadcaster BRT on Wednesday.

The decision came as an estimated 13,000 Turkish Cypriots took to the streets of northern Nicosia to protest against the change, with high-profile figures from across the Turkish Cypriot political spectrum in attendance.

Ersin Tatar had demanded that legal action be taken against teachers who “disturbed our peace” during earlier protests, after Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ union (Ktoeos) leader Selma Eylem had called on ambassador Ali Murat Basceri to “go home”.