Bosnia, Sarajevo: Yesterday, about 2,000 people, mostly women, protested in downtown Sarajevo against a recent ban on wearing a hijab (headscarf) in the majority Muslim country’s judicial institutions. Peoples crowd told,  “We gathered to protest against prejudices, discrimination and marginalisation,” Samira Zunic Velagic, one of the protest organisers.

Samira added, “The ban of wearing hijab in judicial instutions is a serious attack against Muslim honour, personality and identity, a violation …aimed at depriving them of their right to work”. The protest was sparked by a recent decision of Bosnia’s high judicial council, a body tasked with supervising the functioning of the judiciary, to ban “religious signs” in judicial institutions.

The decision which concerns judges and other employees in the sector, but does explicitly mention hijab — a scarf which covers hair, ears and neck — was strongly condemned by Bosnia’s Mulism political and religious leaders as well as numerous local associations.