The Turkish President, Suleyman Demirel, has ratified a decree stripping the woman deputy who wore an Islamic-style headscarf in parliament of her citizenship.

The decree means that the politician, Merve Kavakci, a member of the Islamist Virtue Party, will lose her parliamentary seat and could even be forced to leave Turkey.

The move to remove Miss Kavakci's Turkish citizenship began after she was found to have taken dual American citizenship earlier this year without informing the authorities.

Miss Kavakci caused uproar when she wore her headscarf to a swearing-in ceremony in parliament in defiance of the secular Turkish constitution. Turkish law bans the wearing of Islamic-style headscarves in public institutions.