School officials cannot ban students from wearing an Islamic headscarf (hijab), according to a recent ruling by the administrative court in the Swiss Canton of St Gallen.
The court ruled to overthrow a school’s decision to prohibit a 13-year-old Muslim student from wearing the traditional Islamic headscarf in the classroom.
According to the ruling, the school’s ban is “disproportionate” since there is no evidence that the scarf will cause problems in the classroom or that it is “a serious threat to the religious space”.
The court ruled in favour of the Muslim girl’s parents who argued that freedom of religion is enshrined in federal and cantonal law, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court issued its ruling hot on the heels of another similar ruling – this one announced by the Swiss canton on Ticino in September. The court banned Muslim women in Switzerland from covering their face with head veils (known as Burqas or Niqabs). The ban, however, does not apply to the hijab.
“We would accept this because for us peace is extraordinarily important,” Hisham Maizar, president of the umbrella group for Islamic organisations in Switzerland was quoted as saying by Swiss broadcaster SRF.