A hijab-wearing teacher brought to the lower Berlin-Brandenburg labour court a case claiming that following a job interview she was told that if she keeps wearing the Hijab she will not be hired.
Teachers in Berlin were forbidden from wearing headscarves under Berlin's neutrality act that forbids civil servants from wearing religious clothing and symbols.
In November 2018, the court ruled in favour of the woman and ordered the city-state to pay her €5,159 in compensation. The court also declared that headscarves could only be banned if it represented a threat to peace at school.
Following this decision, the state of Berlin appealed the ruling using the neutrality act.
On Thursday the 28th of August 2020, the federal labour court sided with the lower court’s decision and enacted that a blanket ban on teachers wearing headscarves in schools in Berlin was unconstitutional, citing that the woman has been "discriminated against because of her religion".
Berlin's Senator of Justice Dirk Behrendt stated on Twitter that the law had to be changed:
"The conflict about the neutrality law should not be allowed to be carried on the backs of the women concerned.
In a multi-religious society, it must be about what one has in their head and not on their head.”.
