Muslim refugee fired from internship in Germany over headscarf

Merkel’s party condemned the incident as a step too far

A Muslim refugee in Germany has been fired from an internship at her local town hall after she refused to remove her headscarf.

“We told her that a neutrality requirement applies here,” Elizabeth Herzog von der Heide, the town’s mayor, told Bild newspaper. “Religious symbols have no place in our government. We also do not allow crucifixes on the walls.”



“She said she could only do that when no men were present,” von der Heide said. “So she had to finish her internship,” the mayor added. The 48-year-old Palestinian woman, who has not been named under German privacy laws, won an internship at Luckenwalde town hall under a special programme to help refugees integrate in German society.

In Germany, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party (CDU) has called for a ban on women wearing burkas or full-face veils while driving and at schools and universities.  The mayor's decision was praised by the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. But Merkel’s party condemned it as a step too far.



“There is no legal basis for the mayor’s decision,” Sven Petke, a local CDU councillor said. The CDU’s proposed burqa ban applies to government workers, but the party stopped short of a call for banning headscarves. While burqas and full-face veils are rare in Germany, and a ban on them is largely symbolic, headscarves are common among the country’s Muslim minority.



The German Constitution protects the right to wear religious symbols, and most experts believe a general ban on Islamic headscarves or veils would be overturned. But courts have ruled that specific workplace bans for government officials are legal.

The incident comes amid growing debate across Europe over traditional Islamic dress codes for women. Several French towns have banned the burkini and women have been ordered to remove them by police.

This article originally appeared on The Telegraph.