Turkish Airlines is set to ban flight attendants from wearing brightly coloured lipstick or nail polish.
Pink, red or claret colours will not be permitted, nor will tattoos, high buns and wigs, according to new regulations released by the airline’s Cabin Services Department .
The move has triggered concerns among secular Turks that the country is becoming more Islamic, Reuters reports.
No pinks, reds or clarets: Turkish Airlines will impose a bright lipstick ban
"This new guideline is totally down to Turkish Airlines management's desire to shape the company to fit its own political and ideological stance," Atilay Aycin, president of the airline's Hava-Is labour union, said.
Turkey’s Opposition Republican People’s Party deputy leader Gürsel Tekin also criticised the move.
“"This regulation is perversity, is there any other explanation? Does the public authority decide what a 20 or 30-year-old woman will wear,” The Herald Sun quotes him as saying.
In a statement reported by The Telegraph, the airline defended the ban, saying: “Simple make-up, immaculate and in pastel colours, is preferred for staff working in the service sector.”
The newspaper points out the airline – which is 49 per cent state owned – stopped serving alcohol in recent months.
Turkey is 99% Muslim but the Nato state and EU candidate has a secular constitution.
Turkey’s Transportation and Communication minister Binali Yıldırım was evasive when asked about the ban.
Speaking at the Turkish-American Civilian Aviation Conference, Hürriyet Daily News reports his only comments on the matter as: “I think red is a beautiful colour.
“It is the same colour as the national flag’s colour.”
