Excerpt:
The Czech Republic has just experienced its first controversy over Muslim headwear. Two young women studying to become nurses at a Prague school left the institution after the headmistress refused to allow them to wear headscarves in class.
Reports on whether students should be allowed to wear the hijab was something Czechs were used to seeing on the evening news from France. Now the issue has come much closer to home. A Prague nursing school hit the headlines when it refused the request of two foreign students for them to be allowed to cover their heads in class. The school's headmistress responded with a curt refusal. Twenty-five-year-old Nasra, who wishes to remain in anonymity, walked out the next day. She explained what happened to Czech Television.
"She asked me – if you want to be in school then remove your scarf. Then I told her –I cannot go against my religion, I shall not wear my scarf the way I should, but I shall just cover my hair. But she said to me no, your head must remain uncovered."