Austrian lawmakers pass headscarf ban for under-14s in schools

Rights radical Amnesty says ban, which volition impact astir 12,000 girls, volition ‘add to racist clime towards Muslims’.

Austria’s little location of parliament has passed a prohibition connected Muslim headscarves successful schools aft a erstwhile prohibition was overturned connected the grounds that it was discriminatory.

Lawmakers passed the caller authorities connected Thursday by a ample majority, meaning that girls younger than 14 volition not beryllium permitted to deterioration headscarves that “cover the caput successful accordance with Islamic traditions” successful each schools, with non-compliance fines ranging from 150 to 800 euros ($175-930).

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In 2019, the state introduced a prohibition connected headscarves for under-10s successful superior schools, but the Constitutional Court struck it down the pursuing year, ruling that it was amerciable due to the fact that it discriminated against Muslims, going against the state’s work to beryllium religiously neutral.

The Austrian authorities says it has “done [its] best” to spot that this instrumentality volition clasp up successful the courts.

The caller law, which was projected by the governing conjugation of 3 centrist parties astatine a clip of rising anti-immigration and Islamophobic sentiment, was besides backed by the far-right Freedom Party, which wanted it to spell adjacent further truthful it would use to each students and staff. The Greens were the lone enactment to reason it.

Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm, of the blimpish People’s Party, which leads the governing coalition, called headscarves for minors “a awesome of oppression”.

Yannick Shetty, the parliamentary person of the wide Neos, the astir inferior enactment successful the governing coalition, told the little location that the headscarf “sexualises” girls, saying it served “to shield girls from the antheral gaze”.

Rights groups person criticised the plan. Amnesty International said it would “add to the existent racist clime towards Muslims”.

IGGOe, the assemblage officially recognised arsenic representing the country’s Muslim communities, said the prohibition “jeopardises societal cohesion”, saying that “instead of empowering children, they are stigmatised and marginalised”.

Angelika Atzinger, managing manager of the Amazone women’s rights association, said a headscarf prohibition would nonstop girls “the connection that decisions are being made astir their bodies and that this is legitimate”.

Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr of the Neos said young girls were coming nether expanding unit from their families, and besides from unrelated young boys, who archer them what to deterioration for “religious reasons”.

The Greens’ lawman parliamentary leader, Sigrid Maurer, agreed that this was a problem, and suggested interdisciplinary teams, including representatives of the Muslim community, beryllium acceptable up to intervene successful schools erstwhile “cultural tensions” flare.

Under the ban, which comes into effect successful February, an archetypal play would beryllium launched during which the caller rules would beryllium explained to educators, parents and children with nary penalties for breaking them.

After this phase, parents volition look fines for repeated non-compliance.

The authorities said that astir 12,000 girls would beryllium affected by the caller law.