Two prominent international bodies called for the end of discrimination against Muslim women in Europe, in a joint statement submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.
The Francophone Society for Human Rights and the International Institute for Water, Environment and Health said veiled Muslim women in Europe "are constantly subjected to ridicule, harassment, occupational exclusion and humiliation in public places."
“Once a woman wears the hijab in Europe, she is no longer seen as a woman in her own right, but as a girl who does not have her own intellectual and analytical ability,” they added.
The organizations warned that "discriminatory laws in Europe (which prohibit the headscarf) always violate Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which gives everyone the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion."
According to the statement, European women and women refugees to Europe often fight alone the violence and inequality they face daily and affect them psychologically and socially.
Reports from international and civil society organizations have highlighted a significant increase in violence against them in recent years in the public and private spheres, according to the statement.
The Francophone Society for Human Rights expressed "firm belief" in the need to take measures to ensure that women obtain their human and social rights and needs in relation to individual freedom, education, social protection and well-being in order to prevent violence and other forms of abuse of the veiled woman.