A Swedish court has overturned a bill banning all forms of Muslim head coverings at schools, saying the ban was unconstitutional.
The Skurup town council banned hijab for students under the age of 13 in 2019; this decision triggered many protests in the southern town.
Non-Muslim teachers at the Swedish Prästamosseskolan School also rejected the decision; many of them even went to school in hijab to support Muslim students.
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On Wednesday, Malmo Administrative Court of Appeals released a statement saying the Skurup council’s decision was unconstitutional, TRT World reported.
According to the court, the ban contradicted with the constitutional provisions on religious freedom and the European Convention.
Swedish Muslims
Today, Muslim communities amount to 8.1 percent of Sweden’s total population. Around 800,000 people of the faith call the country their home, according to Pew Research Center.
Sweden doesn’t enforce hijab ban on a national level. However, some municipalities across the country have been taking it upon themselves to impose it.
In 2016, an attack on a pregnant veiled Muslim woman in Stockholm triggered calls on Swedish women of all religious affiliations to don hijab, in a show of support to Muslim rights.
The central Swedish city of Gävle also supported an ad campaign in February 2019 to celebrate diversity by posting the photo of a hijabi Muslim woman.
Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.