[JURIST] A German state court Tuesday upheld a ban on religious headscarves [JURIST news archive] in public schools and affirmed the right of a school not to employ a teacher who said she would be unable to follow that law. The teacher argued the law was discriminatory and violated religious freedom. In upholding the law and finding the headscarf to be a sign of religious belief, the North Rhine-Westphalia court said that the ban ensured state neutrality toward the religions of students and parents.

Numerous German states, as well as various countries around Europe, have considered headscarf bans over the last several years. Last July, a court in the German state of Baden-Wuerttember threw out a 2004 ban [JURIST report], ruling it was being applied in a discriminatory manner [JURIST report] to Muslim women but not Catholic nuns. In January, the Constitutional Court of the German state of Bavaria upheld [JURIST report] a headscarf ban there. AP has more.