18 January 2017

Court rejects Muslim teacher's discrimination case over headscarf

Despite a major 2015 Constitutional Court ruling striking down absolute headscarf bans in schools, a lower court has rejected a case brought by a woman who was not allowed to teach due to wearing the garment.

An Osnabrück court on Wednesday dismissed a complaint filed by a Muslim woman seeking compensation for discrimination and damages after she was not allowed to teach due to her headscarf in the state of Lower Saxony, according to Spiegel.

The case dates back to 2013, but the woman came forward to file a complaint after the 2015 Constitutional Court ruling calling general bans on state school teachers wearing headscarves unconstitutional.

Germany's highest court at the time stated that such bans violated teachers' rights to religious freedom, and such garments should not be forbidden simply for being an expression of religious beliefs. But the court also stated that such bans could be implemented if headscarves were found to “constitute a sufficiently specific danger of impairing the peace at school or the state's duty of neutrality.” [The Local] Read more