German state plans headscarf ban

 

German state plans headscarf ban

Teacher Fereshta Ludin’s court victory looks set to be short lived

A German state has begun moves to ban Muslims from wearing headscarves in schools. The bill was proposed by the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg following a supreme court ruling in September that allowed a Muslim teacher to wear a headscarf.

The legislation is expected to gain approval from the state parliament early next year.

Civil rights groups say a ban would hamper religious freedom but six other states are planning similar laws.

“The aim of the law is to forbid state teachers from wearing symbols which could be regarded as political,” said Erwin Teufel, state premier of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

The region’s Education Minister Annette Schavan said the headscarf was “seen as a symbol of cultural division and part of a history of repression of women”.

In September’s ruling, the federal constitutional court ruled the state could not ban a female Muslim teacher from wearing a headscarf because there was no law against it.

But the court also said German states could ban headscarves in schools if they passed new laws.

The ban will not apply in religious education classes, and Christian and Jewish symbols will not be banned.

Three states – Berlin, Hesse and Saarland – want headscarves banned in all public services.

BBC News

Muslim Student Sues Over Headscarf Ban

Muslim Student Sues School District Over Headscarf Ban

by Adelle M. Banks

The Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization, filed suit Oct. 28 on behalf of Nashala Hearn, an 11-year-old student at the Benjamin Franklin Science Academy, a public middle school in Muskogee, Okla.

According to the suit, Hearn was suspended twice in October for violating the school district’s dress code. The dress code bar students from wearing “hats, caps, bandannas, plastic caps, or hoods on jackets” in school buildings.

The suit argues that she wears the headscarf, or hijab, in accordance with her religious beliefs.

After three-day and five-day suspensions, Hearn was allowed to return to school wearing the hijab pending school officials’ decisions about whether to change the dress code.

The suit seeks a declaration by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma in Muskogee that the use of the dress code to prevent Hearn’s wearing of the hijab violates her rights to free speech and religious exercise.

“School districts that pay lip service to pluralism and diversity but send a message of exclusion to religious adherents whose faith imposes certain dress requirements repudiate those same values in practice,” said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, in a statement.

Eldon Gleichman, superintendent of the Muskogee Public School District, said he could not comment on the suit, but said district officials made an agreement with the student’s parents to study related court cases to determine if they need to revise district policy.

“She is wearing the same scarf … that she came to school with originally, which is part of the agreement,” Gleichman told Religion News Service.

Gleichman said he permitted her to cover her hair but not her whole face, though it had been requested that she be able to cover both.

Religion News Service