(Deutsche Welle) A headscarf ban for lawyers and trainees in German courtrooms is not unconstitutional, ruled the country’s top court on Thursday.
A German-Moroccan law student had hoped to prove that the law in Hesse, which forbids headscarves during training in the courtroom, was unconstitutional. She said it did not allow her to practice her right to religious freedom and personal expression.
Due to the ideological and religious neutrality of the state, the [legislature] can prohibit the wearing of headscarves, ruled Germany’s Constitutional Court.
“The obligation of the state to be neutral cannot be anything else [than] the obligation of its officials to also be neutral because the state can only be enacted through people,” it concluded.
