Harun Nasrullah
Austria has brought into force a law banning Muslim headscarves in schools for girls under 14, with the measure taking effect as the new school year began on September 7.
The legislation prohibits what it describes as “traditional Muslim” head coverings, including the hijab, in both public and private schools.
Austria’s conservative-led coalition says the ban is intended to “protect girls” and “promote gender equality”.
Integration Minister Claudia Bauer of the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) described the headscarf as “a sign of oppression and a means of controlling girls from the earliest childhood”.
The Islamic Community in Austria (IGGÖ), the country’s official Islamic representative body, strongly opposes the legislation.
Carla Amina Baghajati, of the IGGÖ, said that the organisation “firmly opposes the ban”, arguing that it “unjustifiably restricts the fundamental right to freedom of religion and disproportionately affects Muslim girls”.
“Rather than protecting children, it singles out a specific religious practice and risks excluding the very children it claims to support,” she said.
The IGGÖ said it would support girls and their families who believe their fundamental rights have been violated in bringing legal challenges before Austria’s Constitutional Court.
The court previously struck down a headscarf ban in primary schools in 2020, ruling that it breached the principle of religious neutrality.
Under the new legislation, teachers are expected to address violations initially through discussions with the pupil and their legal guardians. Repeated violations can result in child protection services being notified, while guardians could ultimately face fines of up to €800 (£685).
The law has also prompted concerns among teachers, who say they are being given responsibility for enforcing a politically contentious measure.
Green Party politician Sigi Maurer accused Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr of “creating new conflicts and offloading them onto the teachers”.
She said teachers were already “under enormous strain” and criticised the Government for effectively asking them to take on the role of police officers.
The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has called for the restrictions to go further, demanding a general ban on headscarves and face coverings for both pupils and teachers.
FPÖ politician Ricarda Berger said there was “no place for political Islam in Austria, and certainly not in our schools”.
Austria’s Chancellor Christian Stocker, who leads the ÖVP, has also called for a constitutional ban on “political Islam”, telling Austrian public broadcaster ORF that he did not “want to live in an Islamic state”.
The latest legislation is narrower than France’s restrictions on conspicuous religious symbols in state schools, which have been in place for more than two decades and apply to headscarves, turbans and Jewish kippahs.
Austria, along with countries including France, Belgium and Denmark, also prohibits full-face veils such as the niqab and burka in public.
Baghajati warned that the Austrian measure reflected a wider European trend of addressing complex social issues through restrictions targeting minority communities.
The IGGÖ was concerned about “a troubling trend” in Europe “in which complex social challenges are reduced to symbolic measures aimed at minority groups”.
“Such approaches may generate political attention, but they rarely solve the underlying problems,” she said.
