Krasivanova Twig

In Austria, the government's passed a law banning under 14-year-olds from wearing head coverings such as hijabs or burqas in school.

The conservative-led coalition has described the new law as a clear commitment to gender equality, but critics say it's discriminatory and could be unconstitutional.

Our Vienna correspondent Bethany Bell spoke to James Menendez.

Well, the government says this is about empowering young girls.

This is specifically a ban on head coverings, traditional Muslim head coverings such as hijabs or burqas.

And in future, when the law comes into force,

Girls under 14 won't be allowed to wear hijabs or burqas in schools.

And this is public schools.

This is private schools across Austria.

If they violate that, then there'll be a series of discussions with the student and their legal guardians.

Eventually, as a last resort, families or guardians could be fined up to 800 euros.

And the government says really they want to empower young girls.

They don't want to force them into a situation where they're having to wear headscarves.

But this has caused quite a lot of concern in other parts of Austria about whether this is constitutional or not.

Yes, in 2020, the then government brought in a similar headscarf ban for girls under the age of 10.

That was struck down by the Constitutional Court because it specifically targeted Muslims.

And although the law today was passed by Parliament,

The coalition, which is three centrist parties, the Conservatives, the Social Democrats and the Liberal Neos, as well as the opposition far-right Freedom Party, there are still concerns that this could still be unconstitutional and could eventually also be struck down because this is something that those critics say specifically targets Muslims and not others.

Well, the opposition Green Party voted against the law.

They said that it was clearly unconstitutional.