Excerpt:
Serap Güler, the undersecretary in the integration ministry for the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), has fiercely defended a proposal to ban girls under the age of 14 from wearing headscarves or hijabs in school.
The ban, proposed by state’s Christian Democrat (CDU) and Free Democrat (FDP) coalition government, has divided teachers, school experts, religious organizations and even ministers within German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own party.
What the integration undersecretary said
- “This is about the free development of a child. That’s why this isn’t a debate about religion or integration, but rather a debate about the best interests of the child,” Güler, a member of the CDU, said in an interview with ZDF’s “Morgenmagazin.”