The Flemish school board introduced a ban in September 2009 in the region’s Dutch-language public schools, along with a prohibition on the wearing of all religious symbols for pupils and teachers. Responding to a complaint by a Muslim student at a school in the northern town of Antwerp, Belgium’s state council — the highest authority…
Zurich cantonal authorities have decided not to ban the wearing of veils in schools. The cantonal parliament rejected by 104 votes to 65 a motion put forward by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) which wanted to ban the veil in places of education “in order to makes Swiss values respected in schools”. The motion…
The secretary of Austria’s social democrat party SPÖ, Laura Rudas, has stirred a new headscarf debate. While she heavily criticised the alleged “headscarf constraint” among Austrian Muslims, she later clarified that she does not support a headscarf ban, but wants to achieve a voluntary refusal to wear it in the first place by investing in…
The Canadian federal government has quietly dropped the idea of forcing veiled women to show their faces if they want to vote in Canadian elections. The loss of interest comes just as the issue of face coverings is heating up overseas, with President Nicolas Sarkozy declaring that the Islamic burka is “not welcome” in France….
Laws banning female teachers from wearing the Islamic headscarf in parts of Germany violate the rights of Muslim women, according to a report published Thursday by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The ban, in force in half of the 16 German states, “discriminates against Muslim women, excluding them from teaching and other public sector employment on…
