Austria’s ban on headscarves for under-14s faces an initial test as schools reopen in Vienna and other states, with groups including the country’s main Muslim organisation denouncing it as discriminatory and legal challenges likely.
Austria’s centrist ruling coalition of three parties, led by the conservative Austrian People’s Party, proposed the ban in schools, arguing it was acting to protect girls’ freedom.
The legislation was passed in parliament in December with the support of the far-right Freedom Party. Only the smallest party in parliament, the left-wing Greens, opposed it.
The group that formally represents Austria’s Muslims, the Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGO), has said the move was an infringement of fundamental rights, pledging to fight it before the Constitutional Court, which rejected challenges in July because the legislation had not yet gone into force.
The court ruled in 2020 that a previous ban, which applied to under-10s in schools, was illegal because it discriminated against Muslims and the state had a duty to be religiously neutral.
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Going against that principle requires special justification, it held.
Asked by national broadcaster ORF if the court would overturn the new ban, education minister Christoph Wiederkehr said: “You can never be completely certain”.
“We in the government carried out very intensive consultations and we in the education ministry tried very hard to write a law that complies with the constitution,” Wiederkehr said.
READ MORE
Left-wing pupils’ organisations have called for protests. The new school year starts on Monday in three of Austria’s nine states — Vienna, the surrounding state of Lower Austria, and Burgenland, all in the east — with the rest following next week.
The legislation stipulates a school must hold discussions with any pupil defying the ban, after which a fine of between 150 and 800 euros ($A243 to $A1,290) can be imposed.
‘It’s my decision’
With anti-immigration sentiment running high in Austria, the government had argued the law was aimed at protecting girls from “oppression”.
But rights groups and experts say it risked deepening social divisions.
“It’s my decision… No one can force me to wear a headscarf, and no one can force me to take it off,” a 12-year-old student told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency at a protest against the ban in Vienna earlier this year.
Malika Mataeva, co-founder of the Muslim Women Network, decried “years of systematic, deeply rooted racism in Austria” at the time.
READ MORE
Roughly eight percent of Austria’s nine million residents are Muslim, according to 2021 government statistics.
In March, Austria’s education ministry sent out information to all schools on how to enforce the new law.
It contained illustrations of different Islamic head coverings.
“Every teacher who observes a violation must instruct the student to remove her headscarf. If she does not immediately comply, the teacher must report the violation to the school administration without delay,” the instructions state.
“The school administration must immediately hold a meeting with the student and her legal guardians.”
Failure to report those in violation of the law could also have “legal consequences” for teachers and school managements, the instructions warn.
One Vienna schoolteacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP she was not planning to enforce the law.
“It’s a populist measure” that fails to address “the real problem when parents of any religion use violence or psychological violence against children,” she said.
For the latest from SBS News, download our app and subscribe to our newsletter.