European court grants countries right to ban religious symbols in public workplaces

A European Union Court of Justice's ruling allows member states to prohibit employees from wearing signs of religious belief, addressing a case where a Muslim woman in Belgium challenged her employer's ban on wearing a hijab.

The court stated that such measures must be limited to what is strictly necessary and highlighted the discretion of member states in determining the degree of neutrality they want to promote, the BBC reported.

The issue of religious symbols in the workplace, particularly the Islamic headscarf, has been a subject of debate and legal cases across Europe in recent years.

A Muslim employee of the eastern Belgian municipality of Ans was told she could not wear a headscarf at work, which prompted her, who works as head of an office and is not in a public-facing role, to launch a legal challenge.