A wave of bans and restrictions on religious clothing is sweeping Europe. Schoolchildren, judges, jurors, civil servants, and employees are among the groups whose freedom to wear clothing which indicates their religion has been questioned, as has the right of governments, employers or schools to impose restrictions. The resulting debate has led to new laws or legal judgments in, among other countries, France, Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

In the case of Leyla Sahin v. Turkey of 29 June 2004, the European Court of Human Rights decided in favour of Turkey. The banning of headscarves at the University of Istanbul did not violate Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Some years before the European Court already declared inadmissible a complaint by a Swiss teacher of younger children who was fired because she was not willing to leave off her headscarf while teaching. The complaint was manifestly ill founded. In other European countries the wearing of headscarves by teachers and pupils has lead to political and legal discussions and actions as well. In France, new legislation based on the so-called Stasi-report forbids pupils in primary and secondary state schools to wear clearly visible religious symbols. The reasons behind this act of parliament were problems allegedly caused by the wearing of headscarves. In Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that a ban on headscarves for teachers needs a basis in an act of parliament of the German states. It is up to the legislatures of the Länder to decide if such a ban should be issued. In the Netherlands, existing equal treatment law has been interpreted in such a way that teachers and pupils in state schools are allowed to wear headscarves.