Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Muslim Denied German Citizenship after Refusing to Shake Women's Hands


Sun 18 Oct 2020 | 07:38 PM
Ezzeldin Essam Ezzeldin

A Lebanese Muslim doctor, who has lived in Germany, has been denied a German citizenship because he does not shake hands with women.

The doctor had applied for the country's citizenship, which subsequently goes hand in hand with signing a proclamation of loyalty to the German constitution and denouncing extremism.

The Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg denied German citizenship to a Lebanese Muslim who does not shake women's hand's due to Islamic instructions.

The judge quoted the Deutsche Welle, saying, "The handshake is, therefore "deeply rooted in social, cultural and legal life, which shapes the way we live together."

The 40-year-old muslim Lebanese received his medical education in Germany and now works as a senior physician in a clinic.

He was denied citizenship by Germany due to his behaviour during the transfer of the application for citizenship, which he applied for in 2012.

The Lebanese signed a document ensuring loyalty to the constitution and abandoning any kind of extremism, he received the highest score in the test for applicants for citizenship, but while handing over the completed papers he refused to shake hands with the woman responsible for processing documents.

The Lebanese went to court to dispute the conclusion of the administration, but the court considered that refusing to shake hands for gender-specific grounds, breaches the equality reserved in the German constitution.