Austria’s largest parliamentary party, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), has demanded a blanket ban on headscarves in all schools, rejecting the government’s proposal limiting such a ban to girls under 14.
In its statement, the FPO described the headscarf as “a symbol of political Islam, the oppression and paternalism of women”, and called for a new law outlawing “political Islam” alongside an immediate halt to what it described as “illegal mass immigration”.
The proposal comes in response to planned legislation by the coalition government—comprising the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the liberal NEOS—which intends to ban headscarves for schoolgirls under 14 starting from the 2026/2027 academic yea
Critics point out that the FPO’s rhetoric and policy demands raise concerns about the rights of minority groups and whether such measures unduly target Muslim students. Previous attempts to impose headscarf bans in Austria have met with legal challenges: in 2020 the Austrian Constitutional Court overturned a law banning headscarves for girls up to age 10, citing discrimination.
With this renewed push, the debate in Austria now centres on balancing secular school policies and integration efforts on one hand, and the protection of individual religious freedoms and minority rights on the other.