Austrian MPs have approved plans to ban girls from wearing headscarves in primary schools.
The move, which will add to existing restrictions on veils, bans wearing “ideologically or religiously characterised clothing” that covers the head, and specifies that it refers to items “that cover the whole or large parts of the hair.”
Head coverings worn by Sikh and Jewish boys will not be affected, the government said.
Austria’s previous government prohibited full-face veils in courts, schools and other “public places” and banned police officers, judges, magistrates and public prosecutors from wearing headscarves.
The ruling right-wing coalition that approved the ban has conceded that it is likely to face challenges in the country’s Constitutional Court.
Far-right Freedom Party education spokesman Wendelin Moelzer said the law was “a signal against political Islam” while centre-right People’s Party MP Rudolf Taschner said the measure would free girls from “subjugation.”