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The Constitutional Court has decided: The so-called ban on the headscarf in primary schools violates the constitution and is therefore repealed. The controversial law was passed during the ÖVP-FPÖ government. The constitutional judges justified the decision that the regulation singled out a certain religion, Islam, without further justification, which contradicts the state’s requirement of religious and ideological neutrality.
As VfGH President Christoph Grabenwarter explained in his statement on Friday, the principle of equality in relation to the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion justifies the religious and ideological neutrality of the state. The ban introduced by the turquoise blue government does not explicitly refer to the wearing of an Islamic headscarf. However, in the legal materials on the School Education Act, the legislature’s intention is expressed that the wearing of an Islamic headscarf be specifically prohibited.
The lifting of the ban on the veil had required that two children and their parents be educated in accordance with the Sunni or Shiite legal school of Islam. They saw it as a disproportionate invasion of religious freedom and religious education, and also a violation of the principle of equality because the hijab was prohibited, but the Jewish kippah or the patka of the Sikhs was not.
IGGÖ sees the end of “populist prohibition policy”
For the Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGÖ), the lifting of the ban on headscarves in primary schools by the Constitutional Court (VfGH) marks the end of populist bans. The decision shows “that our confidence in the rule of law and our patience have paid off,” President Ümit Vural said in a broadcast on Friday. At the same time he stated: “The IGGÖ is against any form of coercion.”
“The application of equal opportunities and self-determination for girls and women in our society cannot be achieved through prohibitions,” said Vural. “We do not condone a contemptuous attitude towards women who decide against the veil out of personal conviction, nor can we accept the restriction of religious freedom for those Muslim women who understand the veil as an integral part of their religious practice.
Haimbuchner: “civilizational regression for society”
Lieutenant Governor Manfred Haimbuchner (FPÖ) regrets the decision of the Constitutional Court. The decision is to be accepted, but: “Unfortunately, the consequences of this trial have to be described as a step backwards in terms of civilization, since now they open the door to oppression for religious reasons of girls that we do not want to have in our society, “he said. the FPÖ chief of Upper Austria. The ruling should be studied carefully to draw conclusions on how the ban can still be implemented, Haimbuchner said in a broadcast on Friday.
