The report from the Johannes Kepler University Linz supports the Muslims’ previous position.
A legal opinion commissioned by the Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGÖ) supports the Muslim representation’s position that the headscarf ban is unconstitutional. The regulation violates the requirement of religious and ideological neutrality, it says. After the resolution was passed in the National Council, the IGGÖ had already announced that it would challenge the law at the Constitutional Court (VfGH).
The report was prepared by Markus Vašek, head of the department for legal protection and administrative control at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. His constitutional assessment was limited to the principle of equality. An earlier ban on headscarves in primary schools, passed under the Black and Blue Party, did not stand up before the Constitutional Court because the regulation only affected a certain group of students and therefore violated the principle of equality.
The ban in schools – now for girls under 14 – is once again aimed exclusively at the Islamic headscarf. This time, however, it was restricted to wearing it as an “expression of an honorable cultural duty of conduct”. “As a result, the legislation has greatly expanded the group of people affected by unequal treatment, so that the (…) will to selectively single out people remains selective with regard to the religion in question, but the singling out is more extensive,” says the current report.
For the lawyer, the new law treats schoolgirls wearing headscarves “as a monolithic block with a lack of cognitive maturity and the ability to emotionally abstract,” the report explains the reasons for the ban. His conclusion: The new ban also violates the constitutional requirement of religious and ideological neutrality. (APA)
