Feminist strike in Austria to defend the Islamic veil for children under 14
A queer feminist group is calling for an educational strike against a law that prevents girls under 14 from wearing the Muslim headscarf to school.
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Austria has started the school year with a new ban on the Islamic veil for female students under 14 years of age. According to reports ORF, the rule prevents wearing head coverings "according to Islamic traditions" to public and private schools« and foresees, after a process of warnings and meetings with the families, fines of between 150 and 800 euros. The government justifies the law as a measure to protect the freedom and self-determination of girls. The left and Muslim organizations have already called for a boycott and mobilization.
Strike on October 9 to defend the veil
The most visible answer will come on October 9, when several youth organizations have called for a school strike against the veil ban. The organizers include the Sozialistische Jugend (SJ) and the Rote Falken, linked to the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), along with communist youth organizations, the student movement Schule brennt and the Aktion Kritischer Schüler_innen, also close to the Social Democrats. The protest will take place on Vienna's Human Rights Square and the organizers announce that they will protest not only against the veil ban, but also against what they define as "racism, sexism and militarization in schools"«.
The call has also opened a rift within the Social Democratic Party itself. The law was approved by the governing coalition of the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS, and the SPÖ federal leadership continues to defend it. On the other hand, organizations linked to the party, such as the Sozialistische Jugend and the Rote Falken, are participating in the strike against the law. The Social Democratic leadership maintains that all girls have the right to grow up independently, regardless of gender, origin or religion, and that schools have a key role to play in ensuring this.
Muslims claim the veil as “religious self-determination”
The The Islamic Community of Austria (IGGÖ) believes that the ban specifically targets Muslim students. and argues that the State should strengthen the decision-making capacity of young women instead of banning them from wearing a piece of clothing. The president of the IGGÖ has stated that wearing a veil can be a freely chosen religious expression. He believes that presenting all girls wearing headscarves as victims of oppression is a simplification that denies the plurality of personal and cultural situations.
The same organization had already clashed with the government in the summer of 2025, when Austrian Minister Claudia Plakolm defined the children's hijab as a "symbol of oppression"« and argued that it should not take place in schools. The IGGÖ responded that linking the headscarf with extremism stigmatized Muslim families and violated religious freedom. The organization maintains that restricting this practice in the name of child welfare may end up limiting fundamental rights.
He also warned that using child welfare as an argument to restrict religious practices may violate fundamental rights. "Whoever denies a girl's religious self-determination does not protect her, they limit her," declared the leader of the organization.
The left denounces racism and calls for a boycott
Among the most belligerent groups against the new law are LINKS, a radical left-wing group that defines itself as queer-feminist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist. The party calls the ban on «"racist"» because it considers that it specifically affects Muslim girls and turns their religion into an issue within the school. LINKS has made an explicit call to boycott the rule and participate in both the protests in front of the Ministry of Education and the school strike called for October 9th.
The protest has another particularity: the youth of the party that approved the ban also participate. The Socialist Youth (SJ) is linked to the’SPÖ, the Social Democratic Party of Austria, which is part of the coalition government with the ÖVP and NEOS and which supported the new law. However, its youth have taken a stand against the measure and are participating in the school strike on October 9, alongside the Rote Falken, communist organizations and other student groups. The SPÖ leadership, on the other hand, continues to defend the ban as a measure intended to protect the autonomy of girls.
An increasingly Islamized school
The debate on the veil is part of a profound change in the composition of schools, especially in Vienna. According to the data collected, 42% of Viennese school students are Muslims, and in many public centers they already constitute the largest religious group. At the same time, in some districts more than 401% of children do not speak German at home, a transformation that has placed issues such as integration, religion, the veil and common values increasingly at the center of the Austrian educational debate.
The new headscarf ban comes at a time when schools have become one of the main spaces for debate about the integration of Islam in Austria. The government argues that girls under 14 should be able to grow up without religious pressure; the Islamic Community responds that preventing them from wearing the headscarf violates their religious freedom, while a section of the left is already preparing protests and a school strike. The battle over the veil, far from ending with the entry into force of the law, has only just begun.
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