The veil ban in Skurup - debated but ineffective?

In mid-December, Skurup's municipal council voted for a ban on wearing "headscarf, burka, niqab and other clothing that aims to hide students and staff" at elementary schools and preschools in the municipality, following suggestions from the Swedish Democrats.

The decision was made despite the municipality's school administration assessing the ban as impossible to implement as it, according to them, violates a number of laws. A similar ban has already been voted on in another Scanian municipality, Staffanstorp. This applies to children in pre- and primary school up to sixth grade.

The decision was met by strong reactions and demonstrations in both Skurup and other locations. However, Mattias Liedholm, headmaster of one of Skurup's largest elementary schools, says that the ban will have no practical consequences at all.

- In practice, we do nothing. Politicians are our employers and we want to follow their guidelines as far as possible. But at the same time, one cannot make a decision that goes against current legislation, he told SVT News Skåne in January.

In February, Mattias Liedholm noted that the ban ban had the opposite effect and that the number of students with a veil had increased at the school.

The National Agency for Education shares the assessment that general bans on schools violate, among other things, the religious freedom contained in the European Convention and the Swedish Constitution.

“It is indeed possible to limit basic freedoms and rights. But such restrictions must be made by law of the Riksdag ”, they write in an email to SVT.

In SVT's program "The Meeting", two people meet with widely differing views on the ban on hauling. Politician Loubna Stensåker Göransson (M) voted in favor of the decision and teacher Naouel Aissaoi refuses to remove the veil. View the full program on SVT Play.