Switzerland has won a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) case allowing it to force Muslim parents to send their daughters to mixed school swimming lessons.
The Independent reports that a panel of seven judges found that freedom of religion had been “interfered with” but that the move was legitimised by the aim of “social integration”.
They were ruling on a legal challenge brought by two Swiss-Turkish parents from Basel, Aziz Osmanoǧlu and Sehabat Kocabaş, who refused to send their daughters to mixed swimming lessons on the grounds “that their beliefs prohibited them from allowing their children to take part”.
The Basel court of appeal dismissed their claim the following year, and another appeal was thrown out by Swizerland’s federal court in 2012.
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The couple then lodged their case with the ECHR, alleging that the requirement to send their daughters to mixed swimming lessons violated Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The ECHR unanimously threw out their complaint, finding there had been no violation of freedom of religion, and that Switzerland’s right to facilitate “successful social integration according to local customs and mores” took precedence over parents’ wish to refuse.
The ruling found that although freedom of religion had been “interfered with”, the move was legitimate as it was “seeking to protect foreign pupils from any form of social exclusion”.
“The children’s interest in a full education, thus facilitating their successful social integration according to local customs and mores, prevailed over the parents’ wish to have their children exempted from mixed swimming lessons,” said the ruling.