The headscarf is more than just a piece of fabric, more than just another article of clothing, and definitely not some hip lifestyle accessory that heavily made-up girls should use to add a little color to their wardrobe. No, the head scarf is a “flag and symbol of Islamists” which “followed a crusade all the way to the heart of Europe by the 1980s.” Or so says iconic German feminist Alice Schwarzer in her new book, “The Great Cover Up: For Integration, against Islamism”.
The book was recently published in German under the name “Die grosse Verschleierung: Fuer Integration, gegen Islamismus,” and its strong statements been an injection of yet more fuel into the already burning integration debate in Germany.
Teachers are no longer allowed to wear the head scarf in German public schools, and now Schwarzer has demanded the next step: Girls should be forbidden to wear it as well.
According to the book, fundamentalists are on the march in Germany. And the real problem, Schwarzer says, is the “systematic undermining of our educational apparatus and the legal system.”
Amidst such alarmist tones, it is almost surprising to find in the book a few sober facts from a recent study on Muslim women in Germany. For one: just a small minority of them actually wear a headscarf. Even among those who consider themselves “very religious,” just half of the respondents said they covered their heads.