Teacher wins Berlin compensation case of discrimination over Muslim headscarf

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A middle eastern woman wearing a headscarf
A middle eastern woman wearing a headscarf
BERLIN (AP) — A German court has ruled that a teacher who didn’t get hired by a Berlin elementary school because she was wearing a Muslim headscarf will receive 8,680 euros ($9,250 dollars) in compensation for discrimination.

A higher labor court judge said Thursday that wearing the headscarf wouldn’t have led to tension at the school. The plaintiff, who wasn’t identified, had appealed an earlier ruling by a court which had rejected her case. City education authorities can appeal the latest ruling.

Berlin has a so-called neutrality law which says teachers, police officers and judicial employees shouldn’t wear religious clothes.

But judge Renate Schaude referred to a 2015 ruling by Germany’s highest court that general headscarf bans in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia were infringing religious freedom.

The Associated Press

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