Geneva: Muslim councillor ‘forced to sit out council meeting because of headscarf’

(Local) In an early test for Geneva’s controversial new secularism law, a Muslim councillor on Tuesday chose to sit in the public gallery during a recent council meeting rather than obey the new legislation by removing her headscarf so that she could take part in the session.

The move by Sabine Tiguemounine, a councillor with the Greens for the Geneva municipality of Meyrin, came just days after Geneva’s new cantonal secularism law came into force on March 9th.

The law was adopted after 55 percent of voters in the canton backed its introduction in a referendum in February.

Read more.