The German municipality of Bergheim apologized on Wednesday to a Muslim woman who was not allowed to vote because she wore a Hijab (headscarf) during the last legislative elections on September 26.
And it stated in a statement that a woman – whose name was not given – was wearing a headscarf and covering her face. She was not allowed to vote by an employee at the polling station in the municipality of Bergheim, near Cologne.
The statement indicated that the woman filed a complaint with those in charge of the center, which called on the authorities to intervene and force the employee to give her the ballot paper.
He pointed out that the municipality offered an official apology to the Muslim woman for the shameful incident, while the preliminary investigations denied the existence of any racist or anti-Islam or xenophobic intention on the part of the employee.
A video of a woman speaking to polling officials spread on social media, accusing users working in elections of being anti-Islam or racist.
“There are no excuses for the miscalculation that occurred, something like this simply shouldn’t have happened,” Bergheim Mayor Volker Messler said in a statement.
Messler spoke to the young woman on the phone and is expected to meet her in person in the coming days.
The European Court of Justice said several months ago that companies can prevent Muslim female employees from wearing the hijab in certain circumstances, in a ruling issued by the highest court in Europe in two lawsuits submitted by two women in Germany, who were suspended from work after wearing the hijab.
The issue of the headscarf has sparked controversy across Europe for years, highlighting sharp divisions over the integration of Muslims into European societies. The rates of Islamophobia and the siege of Muslims and the racist treatment of their women rose after the massive spread of Wahhabi terrorist ideas in Europe and other countries, and their adoption of terrorist acts and the killing of innocents, which made Muslims there an easy prey in the mouths of European governments and their use as agendas to implement foreign or internal policies or for electoral campaigns.
