BERLIN, July 4 (Xinhua) -- A Muslim trainee lawyer has failed with an appeal against a ruling preventing her from wearing head scarves at court, the German Federal Constitutional Court said Tuesday.
The Karlsruhe-based court, the most authoritative within the German judiciary, ruled that the maxims of secularism and state objectivity in judicial procedures outweighed the plaintiff's right to religious freedom.
"Trainee lawyers who appear as representatives of state authority and are perceived as such must also respect the state's commitment to neutrality," the report read.
Under the existing educational framework in Germany, law students must complete a two-year traineeship which places them in varying stations of the judiciary system before being able to take their final exams.
The plaintiff is a young German nationality of Moroccan origin who has been working as a trainee lawyer in the state of Hesse since January. The justice ministry of the state had forbidden her to wear a headscarf during her training when being engaged in court hearings or representing the state attorney.
The administrative court of Frankfurt had initially ruled in favor of the woman, before the ruling was overturned in Hesse.
The Federal Constitutional Court has now sided with the Hesse judicial authorities by regarding the headscarf ban as an only temporary and location-specific infringement of religious freedom. The majority of the plaintiff's training was not affected by the ban.
The court further argued that the state could not take "any direct influence" in favor of a specific faith or worldview. All of those participating in court proceedings have the right to a neutral judge.
Whether headscarves are permissible in public spaces such as courts and schools is a long-standing subject of debate in Germany.
