Germany: A German Muslim teacher has won a six-year legal battle to wear her headscarf in the classroom after Germany's highest court ruled yesterday that it was her constitutional right.
Ms Fereshta Ludin (31), a naturalised German citizen born in Afghanistan, took the case in 1995 after she was refused a job in a state school in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg. School authorities said her wish to wear her headscarf in the classroom infringed the right of German school children to a secular education.
But Germany's Constitutional Court ruled in a 5-3 decision yesterday that, in effect, Ms Ludin's right to freedom of religious expression superseded the right of school children to a secular education. However, three judges in a dissenting judgment said that the decision not to hire her was in line with the constitution.
"For young Muslim women, it may be a freely chosen means towards self-determination without forsaking their culture of origin," said the majority ruling of five judges, calling on state parliaments to clarify the issue further. "We are of the opinion that authorities and courts should not decide about the headscarf of a teacher but rather the democratically elected lawmakers The state legislature is free to create the legal foundation which until now is lacking."
Unlike the situation in France and Turkey, religious symbols are allowed in German classrooms if the rights of others are not infringed.
Last month, a court ruled that a department store in the state of Hesse acted incorrectly for sacking a Muslim woman who wanted to wear a headscarf. The store feared the headscarf would "antagonise rural customers" and lead to a drop in turnover.
Ms Ludin now teaches in a private Islamic school in the Berlin neighbourhood of Kreuzberg, home to a large community of people of Turkish origin.
"For years in all the court cases I felt stigmatised just because I wear a headscarf. The decision is a big relief for me," she said outside the court in Karlsruhe yesterday.
The ruling provoked a mixed reaction. The Central Council of Muslims, representing more than three million German Muslims, welcomed the decision.
"The ruling takes into account the fact that headscarves in Germany have long been a part of everyday life," said the council in a statement.
Rather than close the matter, however, yesterday's ruling has just opened a new chapter in Germany's long-running controversy over headscarves.