Muslim teacher wins case against school that refused to hire her because she wore a headscarf

A Muslim teacher has won a case against a Berlin elementary school that refused to hire her because she wore a headscarf.

The "neutrality law" in Berlin prohibits police officers, teachers and judicial employees from wearing religious clothing to work.

But a high labour court awarded the woman €8,680 (£7,401) after it found that her wearing a headscarf to school would not have created tension there.

The case, heard at the Berlin-Brandenburg court, was an appeal after the woman – who has not been named – lost her initial case in 2016.

The initial case was won by the school after it said the neutrality rules in place in Berlin prohibited teachers from wearing religious clothing to school.

However, Judge Renate Schaude ruled in favour of the woman on 9 February, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Judge Schaude referred to a ruling that found people's religious freedoms were being compromised by a general ban on people wearing headscarves in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Germany's constitutional court ruled in 2015 that prohibiting state school teachers from wearing headscarves was unconstitutional unless wearing the garments would "constitute a sufficiently specific danger of impairing the peace at school or the state's duty of neutrality", The Local reported.