The Islamic Faith Community in Austria says it will turn to the country’s top court to fight a law passed this week banning the wearing of headscarves by Muslim girls in elementary schools. “The ban on headscarves in primary schools will only lead to segregation and discrimination of Muslim girls,” the Muslim umbrella organization said in a statement. The legislation, passed on May 15, was sponsored by lawmakers from the Conservative Party of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and the far-right Freedom Party, a member of Kurz’s governing coalition. Devout Muslim females wear a headscarves from adolescence onward, and while the law will apply to pre-adolescent girls. Muslims make up close to 10 percent of Austria’s population. The Freedom Party is unabashedly anti-Muslim, while Kurz has been quoted as saying he does not want to see “parallel societies” develop in the Mid-European country.
This holiday season, give to:
Truth and understanding
The Media Line's intrepid correspondents are in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan providing first-person reporting.
They all said they cover it.
We see it.
We report with just one agenda: the truth.
