Teacher wins Berlin compensation case over Muslim headscarf

BERLIN – A German court has ruled that a teacher who didn’t get hired by a Berlin elementary school because she was wearing a Muslim headscarf will receive 8,680 euros ($9,250 dollars) in compensation for discrimination.

A higher labour court judge said Thursday that wearing the headscarf wouldn’t have led to tension at the school. The plaintiff, who wasn’t identified, had appealed an earlier ruling by a court which had rejected her case. City education authorities can appeal the latest ruling.

Berlin has a so-called neutrality law which says teachers, police officers and judicial employees shouldn’t wear religious clothes.

But judge Renate Schaude referred to a 2015 ruling by Germany’s highest court that general headscarf bans in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia were infringing religious freedom.