Germany state court upholds teacher headscarf ban News
Germany state court upholds teacher headscarf ban

[JURIST] A German state administrative court Tuesday upheld [press release, in German] a ban on teachers wearing religious headscarves [JURIST news archive] during school. The court in the federal district of Baden-Wuerttemberg [government website] ruled that the teacher who brought the lawsuit had violated her obligation to keep religious expression out of the classroom by wearing a headscarf in class. The ruling overturns a 2006 ruling [JURIST report] by a lower court that held Muslim teachers could wear headscarves since Catholic nuns could wear habits while teaching. Deutsche Welle has more.

Headscarves are prohibited in nine of the 16 German states, including in Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria [JURIST reports]. Baden-Wuerttemberg initially banned headscarves from schools in 2004 [JURIST report], becoming the first state in Germany to do so.

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