MP asks minister to consider banning courtroom hijabs

A Danish MP has asked Justice Minister Nicolai Wammen whether the government will seek to restrict prosecutors from wearing visible religious or political symbols in court, after a prosecutor wore a hijab at the Western High Court, DR reports.

Dennis Flydtkjær, the Denmark Democrats’ spokesperson on immigration, raised the issue after Zahra Sediqi, a prosecutor at the Viborg State Prosecutor’s Office, wrote on LinkedIn that she was proud and humbled to be Denmark’s first prosecutor to wear a headscarf.

Since 2009, Denmark’s Administration of Justice Act has barred judges and lay judges from wearing religious or political symbols. Flydtkjær said the same rules should apply to prosecutors, arguing that there must be no doubt about impartiality in a courtroom. He added that wearing a headscarf does not necessarily make Sediqi biased, but said people should be judged only on the case documents.

According to Ekstra Bladet, the Danish People’s Party and the Social Democrats also oppose public prosecutors wearing headscarves.

The Prosecution Service told DR News that it has no internal guidelines prohibiting staff from wearing a hijab at work, including when appearing in court. The Association of Public Prosecutors said it fully supports Sediqi and that she had complied with all courtroom dress rules set by law and her employer.

The association said prosecutors appear in court as representatives of the Prosecution Service and are there on the basis of their professional qualifications. It said any broader political debate about courtroom clothing should be conducted as a matter of principle, rather than focusing on an individual prosecutor.

DR was unable to get a comment from Sediqi because she is on holiday. She told Viborg Stifts Folkeblad that she came to Denmark from Afghanistan with her family when she was five. After completing her education, she worked in the Prison and Probation Service and later became an assistant prosecutor with East Jutland Police. She joined the Viborg State Prosecutor’s Office about four months ago and now handles criminal cases at the Western High Court.