August 26th, 2004
Young, Muslim, and French
Headscarf Headlines Around the World: Sweden

While controversy rages over the headscarf ban in France, the debate in Sweden has taken a characteristically moderate tone. Government officials have, in general, made no calls for a broad ban on headscarves in school, though Integration Minister Mona Sahlin has given support to a previous National Agency for Education decision banning veils, such as the burka, that cover all or part of the face. Some in the opposition Liberal party have called for a ban on headscarves in Swedish schools for girls up to the age of 15, arguing that it is against both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Sweden’s education laws for parents to force girls to wear headscarves. The country has not remained entirely free of controversy, however: A row erupted when one woman was unable to withdraw money from her bank when she refused to take off her headscarf for a teller. Her ID photo had been taken before the woman had made the decision to wear the hijab, and the teller could no longer verify her identity in comparison with a photo. Proposing a simple solution, bank officials responded that these problems should lessen once women like this one get new ID cards showing themselves in headscarves.

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