Karlsruhe, Germany, Sept 25: Germany's top court said Wednesday that a Muslim woman teacher can wear a traditional headscarf in school, ruling on an issue that is causing controversy across Europe.

The Federal Constitutional Court said school authorities in the southern city of Stuttgart had been wrong to bar Afghan-born Fereshta Ludin from a teaching job. It said there was no law prohibiting teachers from covering their heads.
She had been barred on the grounds that her headscarf would violate the state's neutrality in religion. The hijab, as it is called in Arabic, has offended teachers, bureaucrats and modern-minded women in Europe for more than a decade.
Wednesday's ruling opened the way for Muslim women teachers across Germany to cover their heads while at school unless the country's federal states have laws expressly forbidding religious symbols in the classroom.
Talking to reporters outside the court and wearing a pale yellow headscarf, Ludin said: "For years in all the court cases I felt stigmatized just because I wear a headscarf. The decision is a big relief for me."
Deputy presiding judge Winfried Hassemer, overturning rulings by lower courts in the case, said it was up to state legislatures, not courts, to decide on the matter.
Germany's Central Council of Muslims, which represents more than three million Muslims in the country, said the ruling gave Muslim women more work opportunities and independence.
"The ruling takes into account the fact that headscarves in Germany have long been a part of everyday life," the council said in a statement. Bureau Report