PRAGUE: A court in the Czech Republic dismissed a complaint Friday brought by a Somali woman who had accused a nursing school of discriminating against her by telling her she couldn’t wear a hijab.
The school argued that Ayan Jamaal Ahmednuur was not properly enrolled as a student and therefore could not have been a target of bias.
The Prague 10 district court agreed, ruling there was no evidence of discrimination.
Ahmednuur alleged that on her first day at Secondary Health School the school’s principal told her to remove her hijab. Instead, she submitted a form to quit and demanded an apology and 60,000 koruna ($2,372) in compensation.
Unlike some other European countries, the Czech Republic does not prohibit Muslim women from wearing headscarves in certain settings. However, the nursing school does for what it described as safety reasons since its students get some of their training in hospitals.
Anti-Muslim activists, including some politicians, applauded the verdict.
The Czech Republic has not seen its Muslim population grow as much as wealthier European countries where refugees and other migrants prefer to apply for asylum.
![]()
Czech court dismisses hijab ban complaint against school
Czech court dismisses hijab ban complaint against school
Ivory Coast president seeks parliament majority in election
ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast is holding legislative elections on Saturday, two months after 83-year-old Alassane Tuatara won a presidential ballot that extended his 14-year rule.
Polling stations in the main city, Abidjan, opened an hour late in torrential rain.
At Notre Dame college in the Plateau district, voters queued in a hall below a huge portrait of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the West African nation’s founding president.
“I don’t feel represented in the national assembly,” said 21-year-old Assi Gilles Darus Aka. “I am here to elect my candidate, so that he can bring forward projects for the professional insertion of students,” Aka told AFP.
Ouattara’s RHDP party has a majority in the 255 seat national assembly. Its candidates in the new poll include Prime Minister Robert Beugre Mambe and Tene Birahima Ouattara, a brother of the president and defense minister.
In October, Ouattara won a fourth term with nearly 90 percent of votes cast in an election in which most opposition figures were excluded. Eleven people died in violence around the election and dozens of opposition supporters were detained, including one deputy.
The PPA-CI party of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was banned from the presidential vote because of a criminal conviction, boycotted the legislative election. About 20 members of his party are standing however.
The PDCI of Tidjane Thiam, another presidential candidate excluded from the October vote, put up candidates for Saturday’s election. One of them, party spokesman Soumaila Bredoumy, was detained in November accused of “terrorism” and “plotting against state authority.”
Polling stations in the main city, Abidjan, opened an hour late in torrential rain.
At Notre Dame college in the Plateau district, voters queued in a hall below a huge portrait of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the West African nation’s founding president.
“I don’t feel represented in the national assembly,” said 21-year-old Assi Gilles Darus Aka. “I am here to elect my candidate, so that he can bring forward projects for the professional insertion of students,” Aka told AFP.
Ouattara’s RHDP party has a majority in the 255 seat national assembly. Its candidates in the new poll include Prime Minister Robert Beugre Mambe and Tene Birahima Ouattara, a brother of the president and defense minister.
In October, Ouattara won a fourth term with nearly 90 percent of votes cast in an election in which most opposition figures were excluded. Eleven people died in violence around the election and dozens of opposition supporters were detained, including one deputy.
The PPA-CI party of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was banned from the presidential vote because of a criminal conviction, boycotted the legislative election. About 20 members of his party are standing however.
The PDCI of Tidjane Thiam, another presidential candidate excluded from the October vote, put up candidates for Saturday’s election. One of them, party spokesman Soumaila Bredoumy, was detained in November accused of “terrorism” and “plotting against state authority.”
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.