The two teenagers who returned to school following the Easter holidays dressed in burkas were considered to have disturbed the peaceful running of the school and were handed initial suspensions of two weeks, a school official said.
The Muslim council of Germany too has criticized the schoolgirls' decision to attend school in burkas. It said it was necessary for teachers to have eye contact with pupils in classes.
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One of the girls was in class with me," said a student. "I find it very strange: before the Easter holidays, she was personable and outgoing. Now, after the holidays, she turns up in a Burka.”
Ulrich Stahnke, head master at the school in Tannenbusch on the outskirts of Bonn, said he spent days considering whether to suspend the girls. He added he and his colleagues had tried to convince them to discard their Burkas, without success.
“For me, this is a new development in Central Europe, which one is either aware of, or consciously brings into school as a provocation," Stahnke said. "Or, one takes a religious angle with it, which, in a very specific way, has a fundamentalist character.”
The two girls have cited freedom of religion in defense of their outfits.
Their families have hired a lawyer, who has yet to issue a statement.
Not helping integration
For head master Stahnke, the girls are harming the school’s integration policy. Around 30 percent of pupils either come from migrant families, or are themselves migrants. Stahnke said the school ‘wants to show these children that they can follow their religion without wearing Burkas’. He now hopes the girls will participate in counseling sessions with a theological expert, and reconsider their decision.
The case follows moves by France, home to Europe's largest Islamic minority, to ban Islamic headscarves and other "conspicuous religious signs" in state schools in 2004.
The measures is aimed at stemming what it said was the rising influence of radical Islamists among youths.
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