German state allows crucifixes in schools but no head scarves

If Fereshta Ludin (25) was a Christian, she would now be enjoying the summer before starting work as a teacher in the southern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Instead, she has found herself at the centre of a political and religious storm after the state's Culture Minister, Ms Annette Schavan, ruled that the young Muslim teacher should not be allowed inside a classroom unless she removes her head scarf.

The minister claims that the scarf is a symbol of the differentiation and oppression of women and is inconsistent with the political neutrality required of a teacher as a role model and a representative of the state.

Ms Ludin insists that, although she is not obliged by her faith to wear the scarf, it is part of her identity as a Muslim woman. "You can't compare this with taking off a coat. This is about my dignity as a Muslim woman, my basic human dignity. The school reflects society in its diversity. To exclude the teacher from that would make the teaching of tolerance implausible," she said.

Ms Ludin was 13 when she started wearing the scarf. Soviet troops had marched into her home city of Kabul, her father had lost his position as Afghanistan's ambassador to Bonn and the family had gone into exile in Saudi Arabia.

Soon afterwards, her father died and her mother, an educated woman who had worked for many years as a teacher and spoke a number of European languages fluently, decided to seek asylum for herself and her five children in Germany.

Her first years in Germany were difficult, as Ms Ludin endured taunts from schoolmates on account of her dark complexion and her religious piety. "That hurt me a lot but I could never despair. I had my faith," she said.

The young refugee showed remarkable dedication in learning German grammar and vocabulary, studying Goethe and Schiller and completing her Abitur, the German equivalent of the Leaving Certificate, in 1993. She won a place at a teacher training college and gained practical experience at a local school where the head teacher, Peter Skobowsky, found her to be "a hard-working, charming and always co-operative colleague".

A devout Catholic with a large crucifix on his office wall, Mr Skobowsky is outraged by the ban imposed on his young protegee, pointing out that she taught the entire curriculum at the school, including sex education.

"A teacher's function as a role model is based on the integrity of the person and I have no doubt about Ms Ludin's integrity," he said.

The controversy surrounding Ms Ludin has created unlikely alliances, with an arch-conservative Bavarian politician backing the Muslim teacher while the feminist monthly Emma takes the side of the state.

The minister who made the decision, Ms Schavan, has long had good relations with groups representing foreigners in the state. But her position as vice-president of the Central Committee of German Catholics has led some critics to accuse her of operating a double standard and discriminating against a religion other than her own.

Crucifixes adorn the walls of many classrooms in southern Germany and priests and nuns regularly sweep into schools in full religious habit to teach religion. Ms Schavan insists that Ms Ludin's head scarf represents a specific strand of Islam and could be offensive to more liberal Muslims.

For Dr Micha Brumlik, professor of education at Frankfurt University and a member of the Jewish community, the treatment of Ms Ludin represents Christianity's last stand against encroaching diversity. "Since when does a Catholic determine on behalf of the state what constitutes authentic Islam?" he said.

Ms Ludin is determined to fight the ban imposed on her but she is adamant that she will not remove her head scarf. She insists that she would defend the right of any Muslim girl to go bare-headed and denies that she has any wish to proselytise in the classroom.

"I don't demand that anyone should wear a head scarf. But I don't want anyone telling me what to wear," she says.