"Krone" commentary

Diversity: our society is changing

Susanne Wiesinger is a teacher at a hotspot school in Vienna-Favoriten and an author.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

We may or may not like it: Austrian society is changing, and not just in cities. Countless people emphasize loud and clear how important it is for people of different origins and religions to live together.

"Diversity is our strength" can also be found on the homepages of our schools. But what about diversity within the Islamic community? This is exactly the question I asked myself when I read about the case of a religious education teacher. Because the woman had taken off her headscarf in class, she was not employed as a state teacher, unlike her colleagues. She took the religious community to court and has now won the case at first instance. She is now no longer working as an Islamic religious education teacher.

This is very regrettable. Because it is precisely this courageous woman who does more integration work in her lessons than all the workshops offered on the subject. She shows Muslim pupils and their parents: Look, I am a believer, even though I don't wear a headscarf. I dress the way I like and therefore commit no sin.

Muslim girls need women like this as role models and support. It is not surprising that the arch-conservative Islamic religious community wants to prevent this. The fact that otherwise committed advocates of diversity have suddenly fallen silent here still makes me angry.