Hundreds protest headscarf ban

Pristina, May 08: Several hundred ethnic Albanian protesters say they want education authorities to reverse the suspension of a girl from school because she wore a Muslim headscarf.

The protesters, many of them devout Muslims, chanted anti-government slogans as they walked in the capital, Pristina, yesterday. Some carried placards reading “Stop Discrimination” and “Veiling of the mind is forbidden, not of the head”.

Arlinda Zeka, 16, was suspended from high school in the town of Ferizaj, 40 kilometres south of Pristina. Although Kosovo’s Constitution guarantees religious freedom, education authorities forbid headscarves or other religious symbols from schools.

Kosovo is 90 percent Muslim, although largely secular.

—-PTI