\n<\/p>\n
Lawmakers in Austria have voted overwhelmingly to ban headscarves in schools for girls under the age of 14, despite concerns the legislation will deepen societal divisions and marginalise Muslims. The law could also be struck down by the country\u2019s constitutional court.<\/p>\n
The ban was proposed earlier this year by Austria\u2019s conservative-led government, which took office in March after a far-right party came first in the elections but failed to form a government.<\/p>\n
Before Thursday\u2019s vote, Yannick Shetty, the parliamentary leader of the liberal Neos, the most junior party in the ruling coalition, defended the ban. He told the lower house: \u201cThis is not about restricting freedom, but about protecting the freedom of girls up to 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt [the headscarf] is not just an item of clothing. It serves, particularly with minors, to shield girls from the male gaze. It sexualises girls,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The ban is expected to take effect at the start of the new school year in September, with families facing fines of up to \u20ac800 (\u00a3700) for repeated non-compliance. A soft launch of the legislation will begin in February as the new rules are explained to educators, parents and children.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s legislation marks the second time that a government led by the centre-right People\u2019s party (\u00d6VP) has set its sights on the headscarf. In 2019, as part of a coalition that included the far right, Austria introduced a ban on headscarves for girls under 10 years of age. The legislation was later overturned by the country\u2019s constitutional court, which described it as discriminatory in that it specifically targeted Muslims.<\/p>\n
This time around, the government said it had worked to avoid the same outcome. Shetty recently told reporters: \u201cWill it pass muster with the constitutional court? I don\u2019t know. We have done our best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the uncertainty, lawmakers backed the ban by a large majority. The only party to oppose it was the opposition Green party, which argued that the law was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to the vote, the bill was criticised by rights organisations, including Amnesty International, which said it would \u201cnot empower girls \u2013 on the contrary, it will add to the current racist climate towards Muslims\u201d.<\/p>\n
The official Islamic Community in Austria, the IGG\u00d6, said the ban would leave children \u201cstigmatised and marginalised\u201d. In a statement on its website, the IGG\u00d6 added: \u201cThis is symbolic politics at the expense of those affected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angelika Atzinger of the Amazone women\u2019s rights association, said the ban \u201csends girls the message that decisions are being made about their bodies and that this is legitimate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Others pointed to the broader picture. Farid Hafez, a senior researcher at Georgetown University, suggested the debate was being used strategically to distract from Austria\u2019s severe economic pressures, including a budget deficit of 4.7% of GDP. \u201cIn this context, debate over the hijab offers a convenient way to divert attention from deeper fiscal problems,\u201d he wrote earlier this year.<\/p>\n
While legal scholars have questioned whether the ban will hold up in court, Hafez noted that even if it were struck down, the damage had been done. \u201cIt sends a chilling message to young Muslim girls and boys: that their faith, and by extension their identity, is unwelcome in Austrian society.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustria\u2019s fixation on legislating against the hijab is not about safeguarding children but about entrenching exclusion, normalising Islamophobia as mainstream politics, and signalling to a new generation of Muslims that their place in Austrian society will always be precarious.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lawmakers in Austria have voted overwhelmingly to ban headscarves in schools for girls under the age of 14, despite concerns the legislation will deepen societal divisions and marginalise Muslims. The law could also be struck down by the country\u2019s constitutional court. The ban was proposed earlier this year by Austria\u2019s conservative-led government, which took office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[15327,163,1575,20660,588,840],"class_list":{"0":"post-37330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-austria","9":"tag-ban","10":"tag-girls","11":"tag-headscarves","12":"tag-schools","13":"tag-votes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}