State of Berlin fails with complaint about headscarf ban
Muslim teachers should not be banned from wearing a headscarf. A complaint by the State of Berlin to the Federal Constitutional Court was successful. The decision could have consequences for the neutrality law.
The state of Berlin must not ban teachers from wearing headscarves across the board. The Federal Constitutional Court did not accept an appeal by the State of Berlin against a corresponding judgment by the Federal Labor Court. That had already happened on January 17, a spokesman for the Karlsruhe court said on Wednesday evening. The Catholic News Agency had previously reported.
THUS, the neutrality law that has been in force since 2005, in which the headscarf ban is also anchored, is in question. The controversial law prohibits teachers and other educators at public schools in Berlin from wearing religious symbols on duty. This can be a headscarf, but also a cross or a kippa.
Last year, a commission of experts on anti-Muslim racism in the Berlin administration also criticized the law. The law is a “systematic and institutionalized discrimination against women with headscarves” and thus an example of the “institutional and uniform practice of anti-Muslim racism”, wrote the commission in its final report.
The Federal Labor Court had already questioned the regulation in August 2020. The court awarded compensation of 5,159.88 euros to a Muslim woman who was not accepted into the school service because of her headscarf because she had been discriminated against because of her religion. It thus confirmed a decision by the State Labor Court in November 2018, against which the state had appealed.
The country, on the other hand, will submit a constitutional complaint in February 2021. At the presentation of the coalition agreement in November 2021, the Green politician Bettina Jarasch, currently Berlin Mayor and Senator for the Environment, announced an amendment to the neutrality law if the Federal Constitutional Court sticks to its 2015 decision. At that time, Karlsruhe had decided that such bans in the field of education are only permissible if the school peace is specifically endangered.
The political circumstances under which the law can now be changed will only become clear after the re-election to the Berlin House of Representatives on February 12.
The Senate Department for Education initially did not comment on Wednesday evening.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, February 1st, 2023, 10:00 p.m