Wiesbaden, Germany - The prime minister of the German state
of Hesse said in an interview Sunday that he wants a ban on the
wearing of Islamic dress covering the whole body in schools.
This was the best way to improve the integration of Muslim female
students and counteract religious pressure on them from within their
own culture, Premier Roland Koch told the news magazine Focus.
He said girls wearing a burka, a traditional outer garment that
cloaks the entire body, could not take part in lessons as equals
because of their conspicuous dress.
But Koch, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian
Democrats, said he had no plans for a ban on students wearing
headscarves, attire which teachers in the state are forbidden to
wear.
A spokeswoman for the organization which looks after the interests
of foreigners in the state warned Koch against using religion as a
theme to gain votes in the Hesse election on January 27.
'We don't know of a single schoolgirl in Hesse who wears a burka
to school. We find this announcement incomprehensible and believe it
is out of touch with reality,' Ulrike Foraci said.
Last week a regional court in the state, where Frankfurt is
located, ruled that a headscarf ban for women civil servants,
including teachers, did not violate the state's constitution.
The rule, introduced in 2004, forbids public servants from wearing
articles of clothing that 'could endanger confidence in the
neutrality of their carrying out their official duties.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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