Hijab and burka controversies in Europe

In several countries, the adherence to hijab (an Arabic term meaning "to cover") has led to political controversies and proposals for a legal partial or full ban in some or all circumstances.

[citation needed] Some policies and proposals merely include Islamic headdresses into the entire spectrum of religious symbols, also including the crucifix, Christian head covering, the kippah, the mitpaḥat or tichel and other clothes and accessories, that some argue should be absent in certain places on the basis of secularism in order to establish religiously neutral spaces so that everyone receives the same treatment, and to prevent social conflicts.

In France and Turkey, the emphasis is on the secular nature of the state, and the symbolic nature of the Islamic dress, and bans apply at state institutions (courts, civil service) and in state-funded education (in France, while the law forbidding the veil applies to students attending publicly funded primary schools and high schools, it does not refer to universities; applicable legislation grants them freedom of expression as long as public order is preserved).

[11] Employers in the EU may restrict the wearing of religious symbols if such regulations on appearance are applied consistently, according to a March 2017 ruling by the European Court of Justice in a case involving two Belgian women.

The Court stated: "A prohibition on wearing any visible form of expression of political, philosophical or religious beliefs in the workplace may be justified by the employer's need to present a neutral image towards customers or to prevent social disputes.

Therefore, the reform was focused on science, education, secularism, and women, as a way of "modernizing" Islam and making Albania more relevant in the European and global context, however, there was no important progress until well after WWI.

[22] After World War I, the post-Ottoman Albania was populated by 60% Muslims, 30% Orthodox, and 10% Catholics; and during the inter-war period, the state took decisive steps to secularize society and the educational system.

[23] Despite this Muslim majority, the Albanian leaders defined the state as after ("without religion"), intending to strengthen national feeling among a population that was divided between different religious groups.

[29] However, on 11 December 2020 the Austrian Constitutional Court struck down the law as it found the text to be discriminatory, as it targeted the headdress of Muslim schoolgirls instead of all religious symbols worn by members of any gender on any part of the body.

According to mayor Jan Creemers [nl] (Flemish Christian Democrats), 5 or 6 women in Maaseik had "caused feelings of insecurity" by wearing a burqa, and he had received complaints about them.

[32][33] In late 2004, at Creemers request Marino Keulen, Flemish-Liberal interior minister in the Flemish government, created a standard prohibition for burqas, and sent it to all 308 municipalities in Flanders.

[43] In 2019, the ELAM (Cyprus) party submitted a bill seeking to impose a ban on all Muslim headgear in public spaces, including schools.

[51] In autumn 2017, the Danish government adopted a law prohibiting people from wearing "attire and clothing masking the face in such a way that it impairs recognizability".

[57][58] Kaare Dybvad, the Minister for Immigration and Integration, described the recommendation as "brave" and "exciting", stating that he "completely agreed that ... there are many young girls and women in Denmark who are oppressed by social control and religious norms".

In December 2003, President Jacques Chirac supported a new law to explicitly forbid any "visible sign of religious affiliation", in the spirit of laïcité.

[62] The law forbids the wearing of any "ostensible" religious articles by students, but does not cite any item; yet, ministerial instructions appear to target the Islamic veil, the Jewish kappa, and large Christian crosses.

The French controversy primarily relates to the Islamic veil as a symbol of religion that challenges Laïcité, or of female subservience, and only secondarily to practical factors such as face-to-face communication, or security risks.

[76] Eight of Germany's 16 states contain restrictions on wearing the hijab by female teachers: first Baden-Württemberg, then Bavaria, Hesse, Lower Saxony, the Saarland, Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin.

In one incident involving Islamic dress in Germany, two 18-year-old students, one Turkish and one Kurdish, appeared at a school in Bonn in a burqa; they were suspended for "disturbing the peace."

The German Finance Minister canceled a visit to the school, and the two were investigated by the intelligence service, who suspected them of contact with the controversial King Fahd Academy in Bonn.

The anti-immigration and separatist Lega Nord has focused recent campaigns on the prohibition of the burqa, although as with the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, the wider issue is immigration.

Beginning in 1975, Italy has had a national anti-terrorism law in place, outlawing any mask or article of clothing that makes it impossible to identify the wearer.

[106] Although a ban was publicly debated, the legislation resulted directly from a motion tabled in the Dutch House of Representatives by the anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders,[107] calling upon the cabinet to introduce it.

Cases of dismissal or exclusion from school are sometimes handled by the Netherlands Equality Commission, creating de facto national guidelines on what constitutes discrimination.

[124] Minister of Justice Knut Storberget had earlier claimed there to be a "great danger" that a general ban on "wholly covering clothing" could conflict with Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

[123] In autumn 2017, the Norwegian government adopted a law prohibiting people from wearing "attire and clothing masking the face in such a way that it impairs recognizability" in schools and in universities.

Mayor Biel Serra of the town of Sa Pobla said the vote was not about cultural or religious discrimination but rather an issue of public safety and people showing their faces so they can be identified.

Coalition partner Centre Party also declared itself against a ban, describing the wearing of head-to-toe veils as "a rarely occurring problem" that is "not something that should be solved through legislation".

Following this, the head of the Turkish Higher Educational Council (YÖK), Yusuf Ziya Özcan, announced that instructors in universities may no longer take action against students wearing the headscarf.

[153] Conservative columnist Theodore Dalrymple, noting that Shabina Begum was represented by the Prime Minister's wife, Cherie Blair, claims that the judgment was a political one, a concession to Muslim opinion offended by the campaign against Islamist terrorism.