Muslims in EuropeBanning Muslim face veil at the work place not discriminatory: Austria’s Supreme Court

Rejecting employees’ requests to wear a veil at work is not discriminating against them, Austria’s highest courts has ruled.

In the landmark decision, Austria’s Supreme Court (OGH) ruled that if items of clothing prevent communication, an employer may legally ban them at the work place.

The International Business Times reports that the case involved a woman who already wore traditional Muslim women garb to work — an Abaya, which is an Islamic over-garment, and headscarf — but who was fired after she told her boss she wanted to wear a veil covering her face. 

The woman’s lawyers said that in addition to her unfair dismissal, her employer made discriminatory remarks about her because of her Islamic clothing. Her boss reportedly said she was undergoing an “experiment in ethnic clothing” and she wearing a “disguise.”

The Local reports that a lower court had earlier ruled that it is likely she was discriminated against, but that claims of discrimination needed further clarification, passing the case to the OGH.

The court said that employer’s comments were discriminatory, but that firing her for wearing the veil was not, because the clothing was likely to prevent her communicating with others.

The court awarded her just €1,200 of the  €7,000 in damages she was seeking.

The question of whether or not Muslim women should be allowed to wear the Islamic veil at the work place or public schools – or even at public — is the subject of intense debate in Europe, and many states have legislated against it. France, the first European country to ban the veil, now routinely fines women who violate the law. Belgian has adopted the French approach, and local laws against wearing a veil are now in place in Switzerland and Italy.