Austrian Court Cancels Ban on Headscarves in Primary Schools

Vienna, MINA – The Constitutional Court in Austria on Friday ruled a ban on wearing the headscarf in primary schools “unconstitutional” and the court also overturned a decision taken by the right-wing government in 2019.

Austrian Constitutional Court chairman Christoph Grabenwarter said the ban violated equality, the right to freedom of thought, worldview and religion, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported on Saturday.

Grabenwarter says the law only targets Muslim students and causes discrimination in the education system.

The law risks limiting educational opportunities for Muslim female students and could lead to their exclusion from society, he added.

Grabenwarter said that simply banning Muslim religious clothing in the education system would result in stigmatization of the group in society.

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He said the ban was inconsistent with the principle of neutrality of the constitution, adding that the justification provided by the government which imposed the law was “not objective.”

Grabenwarter said that implementing the Constitutional Court’s decision to invalidate the law was a legal obligation of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and the court ordered the Ministry of Education to cover the costs of the family court that brought the case to the Constitutional Court. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)