European rights court slams Belgium on headscarf issue

Excerpt:

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday convicted Belgian authorities for violating the EU Convention on Human Rights by excluding a Muslim woman from a courtroom for refusing to remove her headscarf.

In 2007, the applicant, referred to by the EU court as “Mrs Lachiri”, was attending a court hearing in a case concerning the death of her brother.

The presiding judge of the court told Lachiri “that she could not enter the hearing room unless she removed her headscarf”. She refused to comply and did not attend the hearing.

Lachiri challenged the decision in local courts before lodging a complain at the top EU court in December 2008.

See more on this Topic