Austria has approved a “ban on headscarves for girls in primary schools” which is specifically aimed at banning the oppressive hijab.
Austrian leader Sebastian Kurz said last year: “Covering up small children is definitely not something for which there should be space in our country.”
The patka head covering worn by Sikh boys and the Jewish kippa will not be affected by the ban, since it is aimed specifically at coverings of “all of the hair or large parts of it.” Exceptions also include “medical bandages and protection from rain or snow.”
This latest primary school ban is deemed to be “an extension of current rules outlawing burkas and full-face coverings”, which poses a clear security threat in addition to the subjugation of women.
FPÖ education spokesman, Wendelin Mölzer, said the latest law represents “a signal against political Islam” while the ÖVP MP Rudolf Taschner said the measure was necessary to free girls from subjugation.”
Opposition to the ban advanced flawed reasoning…
Irmgard Griss, of the liberal Neos party, said the ban threatened to do more harm than good by making girls at Austrian schools responsible for the repressive policies of authoritarian regimes in Iran or Saudi Arabia.
The ban is not to punish the girls for the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia and Iran, or to hold them responsible; but serves to send the message that the girls are equals to males under the Austrian constitution.
The ban is a rejection of sharia tenets which deem females to be inferiors. The Quran demands female coverings (Quran 24:31, 33:59). The sharia is discriminatory, supremacist, intolerant and has no place in Western societies, least of all in schools.
“Austria approves headscarf ban in primary schools”, by Philip Oltermann, The Guardian, May 16, 2019:
Austrian MPs have approved a law aimed at banning the headscarf in primary schools, a measure proposed by the ruling rightwing government.
The text refers to any “ideologically or religiously influenced clothing which is associated with the covering of the head”.
Representatives of both parts of the governing coalition, the centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) and the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), have made it clear that despite its wide description, the law is targeted at the Islamic headscarf.
The FPÖ education spokesman, Wendelin Mölzer, said the law was “a signal against political Islam” while the ÖVP MP Rudolf Taschner said the measure was necessary to free girls from subjugation.
The government said the patka head covering worn by Sikh boys and the Jewish kippa would not be affected. Medical bandages and protection from rain or snow are also not covered by the law approved on Wednesday.
Austria’s official Muslim community organisation, IGGÖ, has condemned the proposals as “shameless” and a “direct assault on the religious freedom of Austrian Muslims”. The organisation has signalled that it will seek to challenge the validity of the law at Austria’s constitutional court.
The government has already said it expects the law to face legal challenges, since similar legislation affecting schools is normally passed with a two-thirds majority. In this instance almost all opposition MPs voted against the measure, with some accusing the government of focusing on garnering positive headlines rather than child welfare.
Irmgard Griss, of the liberal Neos party, said the ban threatened to do more harm than good by making girls at Austrian schools responsible for the repressive policies of authoritarian regimes in Iran or Saudi Arabia. There was no evidence, Griess said, that girls found it more difficult to learn when wearing a headscarf.
The ÖVP and FPÖ formed a coalition in late 2017 after elections in which both parties took a tough anti-immigration stance and warned of the dangers of “parallel societies”. The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said in April 2018: “Covering up small children is definitely not something for which there should be space in our country.”