Austrian Court Cancels Ban on Wearing Headscarf in Primary Schools 

Today, Friday, Austria's Constitutional Court issued a ruling stating that the ban on wearing headscarves in primary schools in the country, imposed by the government since the fall of 2019, is unconstitutional.

The chief judge of the court, Christoph Grabenwarter, said, in a statement today, that the reason for the ruling is that the government has taken this decision targeting a certain religion, which is Islam and not another, which conflicts with the requirements of religious and ideological neutrality of the Austrian state.

The Chief Justice of the Court stated that the principle of equality regarding the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion justifies the religious and ideological neutrality of the state.

He pointed out that the decision made by the government last year violated the principle of equality between followers of religions because the veil was banned while neither the kubba of the Jews nor the patka of the Sikh sect was prohibited.

In a statement explaining the decision, the court said the law "contravened the principle of equality in relation to freedom of religion, belief, and conscience".

The controversial law prevented girls younger than 10 from wearing the headscarf and had been challenged by two children and their parents.

The measure was passed in May 2019 under the previous coalition of the center-right People's Party (OeVP) and the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), just days before that government collapsed due to a corruption scandal, according to the website of the Local, an English-spoken circulated in Austria.

Both parties had made anti-immigration rhetoric and warnings against "parallel societies" a key part of their political messaging and their spokespeople made it clear at the time that the law was targeting the headscarf.

However, the text of the legislation attempted to avoid charges of discrimination by banning "ideologically or religiously influenced clothing which is associated with the covering of the head".

Nevertheless, the court said that the law could only be understood as targeting Islamic head coverings.