Conservative-led government says law will protect girls ‘from oppression,’ though Amnesty International calls it ‘blatant discrimination against Muslim girls’
 |
| A woman wearing a hijab walks through the water spray in front of the Praterstern train station in Vienna on August 21, 2023. (Alex HALADA / AFP) |
VIENNA, Austria — Austrian lawmakers approved a law Thursday banning headscarves in schools for girls under 14, a move rights groups and experts say is discriminatory and could deepen societal divisions.
The conservative-led government — under pressure from rising anti-migration sentiment — proposed the ban this year, arguing it is to protect girls “from oppression.”
The opposition Green Party voted against the ban, saying it is unconstitutional.
According to the text of the bill, the law will prevent girls younger than 14 from wearing headscarves that “cover the head in accordance with Islamic traditions” in all schools.
“When a girl… is told that she must hide her body… to protect herself from the gaze of men, it’s not a religious ritual, but oppression,” Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm said when presenting the bill.
The ban, which applies to “all forms” of the Islamic veil, including hijabs and burqas, would take full effect with the start of the new 2026 school year in September, Plakolm said.
 |
| FILE: Overall view taken as MPs attend the Austrian Parliament for the first time after the National Council elections in Vienna on October 24, 2024. (Alex HALADA / AFP) |
From February, an initial period would be launched during which the new rules would be explained to educators, parents and children with no penalties for breaking them.
But for repeated noncompliance, parents would face fines ranging from 150 to 800 euros ($175-$930).
The government said that about 12,000 girls would be affected by the new law, basing its figures on a 2019 study that showed that approximately 3,000 girls aged below 14 wore a headscarf six years ago.
‘Stigmatized’
Rights organizations have criticized the bill, including Amnesty International Austria.
Amnesty said it “constitutes blatant discrimination against Muslim girls” and described it as an “expression of anti-Muslim racism.”
Such measures risk “fueling existing prejudices and stereotypes against Muslims,” the group warned.
 |
| FILE: A migrant child hugs his mother during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in a shelter at a former shopping mall in Graz, Austria, September 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Christian Bruna) |
The draft law has also drawn criticism from the IGGO, the body officially recognized as representing the country’s Muslim communities.
It said the ban “jeopardizes social cohesion,” saying “instead of empowering children, they are stigmatized and marginalized.”
Angelika Atzinger, managing director of the Amazon women’s rights association, said a headscarf ban “sends girls the message that decisions are being made about their bodies and that this is legitimate.”
Her comments appeared in a statement published by the anti-racism group SOS Mitmensch, which also opposes the proposed law.
Austria’s anti-immigration, far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which won last year’s general election but failed to form a government, said the ban did not go far enough. They want it extended to all students, teachers and other staff.
The governing coalition said it was confident the revised ban would not be overturned a second time.
 |
| FILE – Migrants walk toward Vienna after crossing the Hungarian-Austrian border near Nickelsdorf, Austria, September 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, file) |
It argued that the law provides for such restrictions if the rights of a child, which are enshrined in the constitution, would otherwise be infringed upon.
But constitutional law expert Heinz Mayer has raised doubts that a ban can be constitutional, recalling the top court’s ruling in 2020, which found that “one religion was being discriminated against.”
It also ruled that “if the headscarf is a symbol of oppression,” a ban puts children in “an uncomfortable situation,” but not the people who impose it on them, he told AFP.
In France, authorities banned school children in 2004 from wearing “signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation” — such as headscarves, turbans or Jewish skullcaps — on the basis of the country’s secular laws, which are meant to guarantee neutrality in state institutions.
By - AFP
