Deutsche Welle, 9 Sep 2015
Lower
Saxony has lifted a ban on female Muslim teachers wearing headscarves while
teaching in public schools. The move follows a high court ruling that such a
ban is against principles of religious freedom.
From now
on, public school teachers in the German state of Lower Saxony will be
permitted to wear a headscarf while at work. The state's Ministry of Education
made the announcement in Hanover on Monday following a decision by Germany's
high court that the ban violates religious freedom.
Before the
change, teachers were only allowed to wear headscarves if they were religious
education instructors giving lessons on the Islamic faith. From now on, all
teachers in all subjects may wear a headscarf if they wish, unless it 'provokes
dangerous conflict' or 'disturbs the peace' - in which case each incident will
be reviewed by the ministry on an individual basis.
But this is
unlikely to lead to any major constitutional changes in Germany, as the court's
decision was vague enough not to demand that the other eight states that have
bans on head scarves for public school teachers - among them Berlin, Bavaria,
and Germany's most populous state, North Rhine Westphalia - change their
statues.
According
to Lower Saxony's Ministry of Education, only one of its 17 female Islamic
religious education teachers chose to wear a head scarf last year, and no one
had ever brought the ban to their attention as a problem. Allegedly the head
scarf ban was a sticking point with a deal the state hopes to make with Islamic
associations this coming fall.
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