The headscarf in other countries: To ban or not to ban

Date: 25/10/03

Europe's muddle over schools and headscarves

ONE row over the headscarf in state schools is playing out in France. But other European countries with large Muslim populations have also agonised over whether pupils - or teachers - should be allowed to wear one.

Teachers have been the issue in Germany. In 1998 Fereshta Ludin, a German of Afghan origin, went to court to try to overturn a decision by school authorities in Stuttgart not to hire her because she insisted on wearing a veil. When the Constitutional Court came to rule on the case this autumn, it held that the veil could indeed be enough to bar a female teacher - but only if the state concerned had established a legal basis for a ban. Several states, such as Berlin, now want to ban all religious symbols from schools. Others, such as North Rhine-Westphalia, want to allow anything. And a few, notably Bavaria, want to ban veils, but to allow nuns' habits and yarmulkes. Such blatant discrimination is unlikely to find favour with the Constitutional Court.

In the Netherlands, still reeling from the impact of the late Pim Fortuyn in the 2002 elections, assimilation of a Muslim population that is nearly 6% of the total is a big concern. But headscarves are generally accepted: they can be banned only if schools are able to cite security risks. In neighbouring Belgium, the decision whether to allow headscarves has been largely left to individual schools. A few have imposed a ban.

Most other countries seem more tolerant. Denmark and Greece allow teachers and pupils to wear headscarves. So does Britain, where laws banning discrimination on religious grounds in the workplace have been interpreted to permit headscarves. Neither Italy nor Spain has sought any kind of ban, though there has been a court case in Spain over a private-school ban. The biggest Muslim country in Europe, Turkey, bans the veil in schools as in any public place, as part of its determinedly secular policy. The Turkish president has just stirred new controversy by barring any women wearing veils from his Republic Day party next week.

Children are, of course, the same everywhere. Experience often shows that, when the veil is banned, they want to wear it; where it is allowed (or even insisted upon), they want to give it up. Sadly, politicians seldom understand child psychology.

Article looks at the issue of whether Muslim teachers and pupils can wear headscarves in schools in various European countries.

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