Muslim girl suspended for head scarf

The girl should be allowed to wear her scarf. I think that this incident is a flagrant example of bureacracies getting caught up in administrative verbiage, and allowing reason to fly out the window.

I wonder how much of this problem is caused by the fact that there is a lot of anti-Muslim feeling in the US? What would have happened if a religious Jewish male student wore his skullcap?

Phoenix32890


Based upon the article the same thing. It would not be allowed.

the October 10, 2003 edition

Germany divided over hijab

Controversy surrounds a recent court decision in favor of a school teacher wearing a headscarf.

By Andreas Tzortzis | Special to The Christian Science Monitor

BERLIN – Having spent the last 15 years of her life wearing the Muslim hijab, or head scarf, teacher Emine ?-ztürk can't imagine taking it off in public, even for just one minute. But that's exactly what Ms. ?-ztürk might have to do if she ever wants to get a teaching job in a Berlin public school.
"It's part of my identity," says this young German of Turkish descent. "How can I lay my identity at the door of the classroom?"
It is a question on the minds of many here following a decision by Germany's highest court, allowing teacher Fereshta Ludin to wear her head scarf in class as long as there are no state laws against it. Since the decision came down two weeks ago, a majority of German states, including Berlin, have announced plans to pass such laws.
In the debate that has ensued, politicians and Muslim leaders have begun to ask some serious questions about the place their religion and identity holds in a Europe rooted in Christianity and Judaism, but with a growing Muslim population.
"You have a new generation of Muslims ... reasonably educated, fluent in cultures of languages they live in ... demanding a sort of legitimization; they want it without having to become assimilated," says Shireen Hunter, the head of the Center for Strategic Studies Islam Program, and editor of "Islam, Europe's Second Religion."
In France, the ban on head scarves in everything from schools to ID cards has provoked an outcry in recent years by that country's increasingly strong Muslim population. In the United Kingdom and Sweden, a more open attitude prevails. Teachers and even female Muslim police officers are allowed to wear their head scarves.
Germany's relationship to its 3.2 million Muslims is decidedly more fragile.
Touchy issues of integration such as Muslim dress and the ritual slaughter of sheep in accordance with Islamic law have been brought before courts to decide in recent years. Earlier this summer, the constitutional court ruled that a department store could not fire a Muslim woman because she wanted to wear her head scarf during work.
The legal conflicts are symptoms of the German government and Turkish community neglecting to address the issue of integration, say historians. By the time integration became a topic, the sons and grandsons of the Turkish guest workers who had arrived in the 1960s had already carved out little Ankaras and Istanbuls in Germany's major cities.
They built up parallel societies that made the Turkish grocer, corner Doener stand, and mosque part of the everyday urban landscape in Germany. Many Muslim leaders are puzzled why a hijab-wearing woman wanting to teach in a public school is such a big deal nowadays.
"We live in a free, modern society, where everyone has their own self-awareness," says Ali Kizilkaya, head of the powerful and controversial Islamrat, Germany's largest Muslim group. "Are we so weak that a square foot of cloth can make us feel threatened?"
Opponents argue that it is not the head scarf, but the fact that Ludin wants to wear it in a public school classroom. Germany has no official religion, and the state is constitutionally bound to maintain a position of neutrality in religious matters.
Eight years ago, the constitutional court ruled that crucifixes would have to be removed from classrooms in Bavaria if just one student objected.
Some observers see the push to wear the Muslim head scarf in a school setting as incompatible with this principle of state neutrality. The fact that Muslims want what many see as more freedom to express their religion than German Christians makes parliamentarian Wolfgang Bosbach angry.
"The debate is absurd," says the domestic affairs expert for the conservative Christian Democrats in the German parliament. "This is not an Islamic country, it's a Christian country, and we should not be forced to accommodate Islam."
Other Germans perceive the scarf as a threat not so much to a Judeo- Christian heritage, but to Western secularism and women's rights.
"There are very few women who wear the head scarf voluntarily, and their number is so small they are not worth talking about," says Seyran Ates, a women's right activist and lawyer in Berlin.
Since running away from her parents' traditional Turkish household in Berlin at 18, Ms. Ates has spent her life fighting for the rights of women yearning to break free of the traditional and religious mold their parents foresee for them.
In the two weeks since the decision came down, she has been a favorite of TV news producers looking for the choice sound bite. The 40-year-old, who wrote a book about leaving her strict home, says she is astounded at the legitimacy with which some German politicians give the head scarf.
"We need to never forget that what we're talking about here is fundamentalism," she says.
Rather than decide what place a piece of cloth that represents religious freedom to some, fundamentalism to others, has in a state-run school, Germany's constitutional court referred the question to the state parliaments and the public domain - where many believe it belongs.
"We're not ready for such a decision," says Riem Spielhaus, an Islamic Studies professor at Berlin's Humboldt University. Referring to Germany's integration problems, Professor Spielhaus says, "We need an atmosphere of openness where we can admit that other religions might also change our values."
The direction the debate is going worries both Muslims and Germans. Misconceptions that the head scarf is an umbilical cord to a fundamentalist Islam could have the opposite effect. Pockets of devout Muslims, facing limited job prospects because of their religious dress, could withdraw into parallel societies harboring the type of terror nests that produced the Sept. 11 attackers.
"There's not a fundamentalist under every head scarf, and thinking that would be fatal," says Spielhaus. "Ms. Ludin's head scarf, which she willingly puts on, is good for the Western society. Banning head scarves would be a victory for fundamentalists."
?-ztürk makes a similar argument, adding that her head scarf could even begin dismantling prejudices before they arise in her young students.
"I think it's very sad that this society continues to look at the head scarf as something of a threat," said ?-ztürk. "I find it shocking that so many things are projected onto the head scarf without anyone ever asking the women who wear them.

This is a big issue in France,as well.

Ridiculous!

Jehovah's Witnesses are allowed to pound on my door and disrupt my day and a well-behaved girl is not allowed to follow her religious beliefs?

Preposterous.

Surely this nonsense violates freedom of religion?

I can see the point of Muslim women not being permitted to wear headgear obscuring their faces in identification photographs, of course, but this seems just ridiculous to me.

Ironically, prohibition of the scarf is seen as promoting religious freedom.

Yes - I see that, though it makes my eyes cross a little! However, when the promotion of freedom leads to such results, it sems we might need less law, and more common sense!

Here, although we have strongly secular schools, too - and christmas and easter themed class activities are now frowned on, headscarves cause no problems.

I see the gang thing problem - and, in a highly litigous society, I can see ridiculous pitfalls looming for applying common sense, but I think there should be room for such in law.

I support the school. I thought it was preposterous that I could not be a well behaved "cap" wearer. On some days (like when my friends shaved circles on my head) I had damn good reason to want to wear a hat but was not permitted.

Enforcing a dress code is not easy. I see no reason for religious exceptions. If religious exceptions why not "ethnic" exceptions?

"Seriously, wearing wallet chains is a part of my culture man!"

Can you imagine that all these school administrators with PhD's still don't get it?

So, Craven - I may, and do, think the wearing of head-scarves is ridiculous - but these people really believe in this stuff. Is this girl, and others like her, not to have an education in a normal social setting because of her beliefs?

I have already indicated I understand the legal pitfalls - but surely, in a common sense world, we could argue that wallet chains and such (or anything actually dangerous, or that breaks normal laws) however important they may be to a fella's image, are not actually a religious requirement? Yes, I can see the Supreme court having to rule on that one, sigh, but at least meanwhile this girl could be getting an education.

My opinion is unresolved on this question. Headscarves can lead to chadors, and so on, no?
And I do believe in same rules for all in school dress codes. On work, probably same rules for all.
A little hard for me to say, sitting here at work in jeans with my dog next to me - I have a lot of work freedom and almost always have.

But the fact that it is really not a large item and is so very important to those who believe in it... makes me soften a little. Though I have little sentences I say to myself when I see the veils.
(bad hair day? bad/osso). I used to cover my hair, sort of, myself, as a young Catholic girl, but that was in church. And, I can see the points about strictures emphasizing a sense of isolation in a group.

I also believe in communities integrating while not erasing cultural differences. (And what do I mean by that, eh? thinking about it.)

I'll come down for the moment on side of supporting the school.


Edit to say I didn't mean yamulkes and headscarves should be banned at work; meant that whatever rules occur in whatever work or school situation should be for everybodyat that workplace...

I always had the funny idea that educators were supposed to educate and teach tolerance.

There is a problem in the US about Muslim women wearing headscarves and what have you at WORK?????!!!!!!!!!! Or those little hats Jewish men wear??

I have seen Muslim women working in banks with scarves.

Also in stores.

I dunno. I went to a high school and grammar school with uniforms, very specific uniforms, but those were private parochial schools. I went to a state university where anything but total nudity was ok, and sometimes even that...

But if no one can wear hats at a public school, then that should be across the board, huh? Or is it that no one can wear a religiously affiliated headcovering? Hmmm. Can we wear a2k hats?
It does seem to be stupid.

Ok, back to unresolved.

So, what exactly are they trying to teach their children about Muslim girl's restrictions on wearing scarves?

Nope. The first step in her education can be that she won't always get her way and that her beliefs should be compatible with the life she wants to lead.

When I couldn't wear a hat when my friends shaved my head I didn't go to school.

Lots of people dislike the dress code. When my school threatened to require uniforms most students said they wouldn;t go to school.

Their loss.

US courts have ruled countless times that freedom of speech does not apply to school. The schools can't function if they have to bow to each ridiculous belief.

IMO religious dress is a form of expression. When it becomes an extention of the body that the individual can't live without it is less reasonable.

What if I were to say that my religion is such that I should always be armed and try to force that on the school? That one is obviously not permissible and IMO making exceptions to the dress code for beliefs is unwise. They can wear what they want outside of school. If not wearing a bra is against the dress code (because it distracts) then why shouldn't religious wear be against the dress code?

The schools struggle with dress codes. It is an issue that is recently related to keeping students alive.

In the schools I attended I could not even wear anything with a sport's team logo because the crips and the bloods were using certain sports teams as their uniforms.

Enforcing a dress code is already a pain, making frivolous exceptions makes it harder.

I understand that the one who holds the belief does not consider it frivolous. But there are lots of wacky people who do not consider their beliefs frivolous.

I know people whose religious beliefs preclude the wearing of a bra. That would be against the dress code.

I know people whose religious beliefs preclude vaccinations. Their kids can't go to school when there is an epidemic.

I'd rather make the religious beliefs a capital offense than have society bow to each of them.

The middle ground is that they can hold their beliefs and make an effort to work with society.