Russia's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a ban on Muslim girls wearing headscarves in schools in the country's southern region, Russia's RAPSI legal news agency reported.
The Court ruled that the ban did not violate freedom of faith or the right to education with regard to Muslim schoolgirls. Every school has the right to decide what its students may or may not wear, it said.
The ban on 'hijab' (headscarf) for school-children in the southern Stavropol region came into force in September last after local authorities issued a directive requiring schoolchildren to wear uniforms.
Parents of Muslim girls challenged the ban in the Supreme Court after a regional court rejected their lawsuit in March.
A representative of the Prosecutor-General's Office told the court that the Stavropol administration's decision to introduce school uniforms was "not a local whim" but was in line with federal legislation, "which stipulates the secular nature of education in Russia."
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