Since 1 September, Austria has banned headscarves for female pupils under 14 at state and private schools. Repeated breaches of the rule could lead to fines of €150 to €800 for parents.
Since the start of the 2026/27 school year on 1 September, female pupils in Austria under the age of 14 have been prohibited from wearing any headscarf at school that “covers the head in line with Islamic traditions.”
Teachers’ representatives say the new rule has generally been implemented calmly and respectfully. At the same time, some schools have reported conflicts and, in some cases, aggressive reactions.
The new law was already controversial before it came into force, with critics questioning whether it was compatible with freedom of religion and the principle of equality.
Because wearing these hurts… checks notes… Oh right, no one.
Nope.
If hijabs are worn for the purpose of “hiding women/girls so they do not get raped” this does several things that hurt:
First of all, it oppresses women in their freedom of expression. They learn that it is bad to show themselves and accept their bodies as they are: a natural and normal thing. Furthermore it makes women responsible for the actions of sexual offenders.
Following from the latter, it eases the responsibility on the education of young men, who should absolutely have to learn how to deal with their urges in a healthy manner and that it absolutely not acceptable to rape or molest women.
This also leads to a subordination of women below men. Which, as we should know nowadays, is backwards and detrimental
Then, this can also worsen the independence and confidence of women and lead to several mental health problems due to suppression of their natural physiological development. This does not need to be just the demonization of sexuality itself, but also loads their self image and body with shame, which is absolutely backwards, since… well human bodies are a natural and normal thing and it is totally okay to have one… obviously.
It is already bad enough how we, as a society, judge people by their appearance. No need to worsen this by also feeding into severe complexes by letting girls getting forced into having to hide themselves.
So yes: this does hurt on several levels.
What if a woman chooses to wear a hijab?
Are you not then hindering their freedom of expression?
Should turbans and yamakas be banned too?
Should circumcision, a permanent elective surgery, also be banned because it infringes on (often an infant’s) bodily autonomy?
You speak as if these is an irrefutable moral basis to this when the reality is it’s based almost entirely on cultural biases.
Freedom of expression means that you don’t get to choose for others, especially when it comes to their bodily autonomy.
Ironically, this is patriarchal, authoritarian and ultimately antithetical to Western values.
As a man, I’ve seen other men going around without shirts this summer. I wouldn’t appreciate a law that insisted I had to go around without my shirt too.
Different people have different ideas of what modesty means. It isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be, the law’s job to force us all to be the same.
Iran has imprisoned women for NOT wearing headscarves. This is the same thing, just enforcing different cultural norms. Neither is very free.
Do you think it’s possible that some women actually choose to wear the Hijab? I’m Muslim and most women in my family don’t wear Hijab, but the ones that do really strongly believe in it. There’s zero men in my family that have asked any of their daughters or wives to wear Hijab.
Tell me you’ve never hung out with Hijabis in the West without telling me you’ve never hung out with Hijabis.
It seems like you’re a Western Chauvinist who hasn’t really done any of the work to understand the nuances of the Hijab from a woman’s perspective. Not all women are forced into wearing the Hijab. By forcing young women to not wear it, you’re limiting their self expression. I don’t understand why the government should be involved in this decision which is very personal.
My brother had to call CPS just this Friday on his neighbor because he thought it’s okay to beat her 17yo daughter in the street for forgetting to wear a hijab. The neighbor was even born in US, him/his wife has hung out with us in the past. She used to speak a very similar tune about hijab like it’s my choice and I believe in it and it gives me strength and all the indoctrinated crap that few years ago, I too thought was women empowerment of some kind.
Where was she protecting her daughter? Nowhere, instead she left a bag of shit at my brother’s front door last night in front of the doorbell camera.
While I also have independent women that have chosen to wear hijab in theirs 30s in my life, I’m leaning towards this whole concept is fucked. I don’t see where you draw the line between, it’s my choice that’s why I do it vs I might get murdered by my brother if I don’t do it. How many women live in this fear. I also worked in immigration law clinic in UK for a few months. I have also met a woman, who was refugee and that had no male relatives with her, be scared of removing hijab on the fear of retaliation from community she will desperately need support from before she can be legal.
I do want to point out that this behavior isn’t exclusive to Muslim culture. Just recently there was a MAGA guy who murdered his daughter for arguing about Trump.
I’m not going to say that there aren’t dangerous men out there, but a government shouldn’t be getting involved in what is a complicated personal nuanced issue. Punishing women for making a choice isn’t the answer.
Both of your stories are interesting but are only anecdotes at the end of the day. What’s important is that this is banning a religious practice because you dislike or don’t agree with it. That’s a road we shouldn’t go down. We have countless examples throughout history and in our present day of heavy handed approaches to enforcing cultural and religious unity, and most people who are not authoritarians agree that this is a bad thing to do.
I dont have a solution my friend, I’m just giving counter examples of freedoms being trampled on the conservative Muslim side. And saying situation is fucked for muslim women, if they want to wear or not want to wear. Because one one side it’s islmaphobes trampling their freedom to wear a hijab and on the otherside Islam conservatives trampling their freedom to not wear one.
I bet a ban on hijab will do wonders for that abused women you’re talking about. I bet their lives will fundamentally improve for now having to fear both their abusive relatives and the law, having to chose to get abuse from parents or from law enforcers should be fucking swell experience.
I am not un favor of the ban, but I also don’t know what works. I’m just saying the situation is fucked and religious indoctrination is fucked. Individual freedoms should be individual, freedom of people to wear hijab should be protected. Also freedom not to wear hijab should be protected, but seems to me there are people willing to violate freedoms on both sides of the lines.
I bet welcoming the systemic demeaning of women will work even better to improve their safety. Just legalize killing them if they don’t wear the scarf then.
Exactly. People should not be forced to wear religious clothing but people should not be forced to not wear religious clothing either.
If the law is created to protect individual human rights, children’s rights, to protect them even from the religious beliefs of their parents, then they should make circumcision illegal as well.
If they don’t, then this isn’t their motivation at all, and they are simply bigots.
(They won’t)
Yeah… that’s not how any laws work. Lawmakers make compromises all the time and introduce some rules gradually. They made non-smoking rooms mandatory first, then they banned smoking in public workplaces and businesses open to the public, then they banned smoking near to bus stops and so on and so on. You don’t go “if the law was created to protect non-smokers they would ban smoking everywhere where non-smokers are. If they don’t, then this isn’t their motivation at all”.
The idea that banning head scarves is incrementalism towards banning genital mutilation strains credulity. Besides, we all know that Austria of all places would never ban circumcision. This is not about the human rights of children.
I didn’t suggest that, you did. You said both things could protect children’s rights. I just pointed out that the fact that some law doesn’t address entirety of a problem doesn’t prove anything about motivations behind it. Many different things influence the scope of laws. Not just the intent of the legislators but also things like popular support, how much would the enforcement cost, is the enforcement possible in practical terms or some undesired consequences of such enforcement.
I question the logic if banning head scarves is higher priority than forced genital mutilation
In this case priority is a matter of perspective, not logic. Banning circumcision may be more important for you and me but it doesn’t mean it’s the priority for Austrian voters and legislators.
Precisely, and it speaks to the credibility of the human rights basis, leaving simple bigotry as the most probable motive.
This law also oppresses freedom of expression and it will only make muslims more resentful and resistant to integration.