Austria Bans Head Scarves in Schools for Girls Under 14

Austrian schoolgirls will be barred from wearing head scarves in class once the next school year starts in September, after the Austrian Parliament passed a law about the practice this week.
Children under 14 will not be allowed to wear a veil while in lessons and at recesses, though the ban will not cover class trips outside school grounds. The parents of children who repeatedly flout the ban will face fines of 150 to 800 euros, or roughly $175 to $940.
The law has long been a goal for Austria’s nationalist right, but it was passed by Austria’s centrist governing coalition after a rise in popular support for the measure. Decades of immigration to Austria have led to a fractious national debate about Austrian identity and the role of Islam in public life, echoing similar societal disputes across the continent.
The law could still be struck down by the country’s highest court, which overturned a similar ban five years ago.
The government presented the new measure as an attempt to protect children’s rights. It predicted that roughly 12,000 girls would be affected by the change.
“A head scarf on an 11-year-old girl is and remains a sign of oppression,” said Claudia Plakolm, Austria’s integration minister, during a press briefing in Vienna last month. “Girls develop feelings of shame, they get a distorted body image, unstable self-esteem,” she added.
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