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Austrian Bans the Wearing of Head Scarf’s in All Primary Schools
VIENNA – Austria Parliament has passed a law intended to ban Muslim girls from wearing a headscarf (Hijab) in primary schools. The Jewish yarmulke and Sikh patka are not included in the new measure.
The Austria Press Agency reported that lawmakers from the governing coalition of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservative People’s Party and the anti-migration Freedom Party supported the measure late Wednesday.
Kurz’s party conceded that the new headscarf ban is likely to face challenges at Austria’s constitutional Court.
The measure bans wearing “ideologically or religiously characterized clothing” that covers the head, and specifies that it refers to items “that cover the whole or large parts of the hair.”
Austria’s previous government prohibited full-face veils in courts, schools and other “public places” and banned police officers, judges, magistrates and public prosecutors from wearing headscarves.
The Associated Press
Austria Bans Headscarves in Kindergartens and Primary Schools