Berlin to Ban Headscarves for Civil Servants

Civil servants will be forbidden from wearing headscarves in Berlin in the future. The city-state's senate agreed on a bill to ban employees from wearing visible religious symbols, including headscarves, crosses and Jewish scull caps, at work. Berlin's ruling coalition, made up of the Social Democrats and the post-communist Party for Democratic Socialism, spent months debating the issue, which will apply to judges, teachers and police, among other civil servants. Only day-care teachers will be exempt from the ban. Berlin will be the sixth German state to forbid its civil servants from wearing headscarves since Germany's highest court deemed the issue a matter for state regulation last year.