Ukrainian Mufti sharply criticizes the EU court decision to ban hijab at work

The leader of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine “Ummah” Said Ismagilov Mufti criticized the recent EU court ruling entitling European employers to prohibit employees to wear a scarf (in the case of Muslims, it is called hijab) in the workplace.

“Women's scarf - the hijab – is not a religious symbol, these are not symbols but clothes. Just clothes! Who and on what grounds decided that the scarf is a religious symbol? I see that European Muslims have incorrectly conducted defense at the trial. We had to prove that the scarves are not religious symbols, and this is true,” Mufti Ismagilov wrote on his Facebook page.

“If a scarf is a religious symbol, then the women’s skirt and my pants and my shirt are religious symbols, and the employer may require to remove them?” said the mufti.

According to Said Ismagilov, “secular ideology exerts and even denser pressure on human rights, the rights of women.”