Muslim lawyer ordered not to wear headscarf at Spanish court

A Spanish female lawyer has filed a complaint against a judge who ordered her to leave the courtroom because she was wearing the Muslim headscarf, press reports said Wednesday.

Moroccan-born Zoubida Barik Edidi, 39, was assisting a colleague at a trial related to Islamist terrorism at the National Court on October 29, when judge Javier Gomez Bermudez told her she could not stay in the room because of the headscarf she was wearing with her gown. Barik replied she had been to other trials with her scarf on. “I am the one who gives orders here,” Gomez Bermudez answered.

Barik has filed a complaint at the judges’ organ CGPJ, accusing Gomez Bermudez of discrimination and abuse of power, and arguing that Spanish law did not prohibit lawyers from covering their heads.

Earth Times, 11 November 2009