17 March 2004
WESTERN EUROPE: Headscarves, religion & the state: the reality of European commitment to human rights for all

By Kristine Rødstøl, Postgraduate student in the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights

In this personal commentary contributed to Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org, Kristine Rødstøl, a postgraduate political science student on a Fritt Ord scholarship in the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, looks at the reality of European commitment to human rights for all, as illuminated by the debates over the Muslim headscarf (hijab) in France, Germany and Sweden. She asks whether, after the Madrid bombings, European countries will give equal benefits to all religious communities like Sweden, or discriminate against all religious communities like France.