🔸Austria’s government on Monday, 16 Shahrivar, implemented a ban on the use of the Islamic headscarf for girls under 14, coinciding with the reopening of schools in Vienna and other states of the country.

🔸The governing coalition in Austria, made up of three centrist parties, proposed a ban on headscarves in schools and said its goal is to protect girls’ freedom. The law was passed in December with support from the far-right Freedom Party in parliament. The only parliamentary party that opposed it was the left-wing Greens.

🔸Groups including the country’s most prominent organization of Muslims have called the law discriminatory, and there is a possibility of legal complaints being filed against it.

🔸The Austrian Islamic Society, which represents Muslims in the country, said the move is a “violation of fundamental rights” and has pledged to fight to have it overturned in the constitutional court. That court had rejected earlier complaints in July because the law was not yet in effect.

🔸In 2020, Austria’s constitutional court had ruled that the previous ban, which prohibited the wearing of headscarves for students under 10, was illegal.