Legal opinion in Austria rules headscarf ban for schoolgirls unconstitutional

A legal expert in Austria has concluded that a newly passed regulation prohibiting girls under the age of 14 from wearing headscarves in schools is unconstitutional.

 According to a 21-page report published on April 21, 2026, by Professor Markus Vasek of Johannes Kepler University Linz, the ban violates the state's mandate for religious and ideological neutrality, News.Az reports, citing AA.com.tr.

The report was commissioned by the Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGÖ), which plans to use these findings to challenge the law before the Constitutional Court.

The legislation, scheduled to take effect in September 2026, targets the Islamic headscarf while exempting other religious symbols. Vasek argues that the law unfairly treats young Muslim students as a "monolithic bloc" lacking maturity and fails to meet the principle of equality. This marks the second attempt by the Austrian government to implement such a ban; a previous version introduced in 2019 was struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2020 for being discriminatory and specifically targeting one religious group.

News.Az 

By Leyla Şirinova