A the only free the eyes. The woman who wears this veil, so that very little of the price. So Catherine K., 21, not only with your clothes. Neither in the E-Mails still on the phone, she reveals her full name. You want to also do not specify a number, but the calls yourself. “Unknown” appears on the Display.

if you want to know what Catherine K. moves to deliver a dispute with the University of Kiel, have to settle for your voice. Young, reflected and behavior, distant sound of this voice, and decided, for their own thing. Catherine K. wants to continue to may your the wear and still studying: “I don’t want to achieve only for me but also for my brothers and sisters.”

K. is the protagonist in a conflict that only affects very few people in Germany, as fully veiled women are rare here. And yet, he raises fundamental questions: How far can freedom of religion be enough? How much tolerance must find people in this country – and who for whom?

A lecturer took offence

at the end of January, the Kiel University administration adopted a so-called Nikab ban. Catherine K., who studied nutritional Sciences, was published since the beginning of the semester, with face veils to attend Lectures and seminars. A lecturer took it, finally, kick-off, well-informed supervisors. Looking for Uni-details of the conversation with the student. But they found no common denominator.

The University then decided: face veil should not be worn “in courses, exams, and discussions in the future”. The line on the grounds that the “minimum conditions should be ensured for the required communication”. This includes facial Expressions and Gestures.

the face of the public discussion on the case, explained the Vice-President of the University, and Anja Pistor-June, the decision by the end of February, again in an opinion: It was “a matter of course, to promote diversity and tolerance on Campus”. But: “The Bureau maintains open communication is a prerequisite of teaching and research. ‘Open’ means: unveiled.”

You’ve had several conversations in the direction that Katharina K. could continue to study, said a spokesman for the University of the MIRROR. It is not a question, with the decision a student of “busting”. The University wanted to make not a “example”.

“Sometimes it’s good to put a sign”

K. on the other hand not understand the Argument of the “communication barrier”. “I can understand that people feel more comfortable when you see my face, but I think this is also a question of habit.”

In the case of students who were sitting in the very back in the lecture halls, and could see the lecturer, no faces, and in the case of online seminars, games, the facial Expressions as well. “When it comes to tests, I can lift about in the next room like the veil, my face and my passport to show the identity to match,” says K. she was also compared to a male instructors.

in a Strictly religious women, not decreasing, however, the reality is that in General, in front of male teachers – and the universities could not leave for the attendance and identity control, extra female staff, says Michael Kiefer, one of the researchers at the University of Osnabrück to Islam and radicalisation. It was not unreasonable for the teachers in the high school. “That is why it is justified in my eyes, to put freedom of religion in this case, borders.”

So, too, Mathias Rohe, lawyer and Islamic scholar at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Although there are so few fully veiled female students in Germany, regulations in this regard have rather a symbolic character. “But sometimes it’s good to put a sign, because it have not already applied for several universities in us, the know how you with the topic to deal with.”

Prefer not to study as no Nikab

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany had previously said that you’ve already made ten years ago, is clear: “In teaching – whether in school or at a University – is to show the Face of educational and learning technically indispensable.”

K. does not want to accept the decision of the Kiel University. It has announced legal steps against the adoption and wants to quit in case of doubt, prefer their studies as their Nikab off. “The laws of Allah are more important to me than my scientific career,” says Catherine K. in Kiel grew up with parents who are Evangelical Christians, but not particularly religious, as she says.

you told, you have to want to improve their English for school and so over the Internet contact to Muslims. “We have also talked about spiritual things, and I’ve set more and more with the Koran apart.” You have found the answers that you’ve searched for previously, in confirmation classes, in vain.

About eight months later, she converted to Islam, said K., you have first worn a head scarf, then later the Nikab. “I used to think the headscarf for the oppression of women,” says K. “But if I decide voluntarily to cover certain parts of my body and me just then, someone forbids, is the oppression.”

instrumentalization on both sides

K. s case is suitable to be of different parties, instrumentalised. On the one hand, it helps those who want to get the victim to the myth that Muslims in the Western world. On the other hand, he could be useful to those who summon the downfall of the Christian West, which will be overrun by Muslims, allegedly, and want to show you a clear edge.

Prior to this instrumentalization also Julian Junk, head of the research group, “radicalization and political violence” at the Leibniz-Institut Hessische Stiftung Friedens – und Konfliktforschung (HSFK) warns. The debate about the ban, mobilizing in the right, as in Salafist Milieu very many people.

“If you consider this effect, would have done the management of the University might be well advised to tolerate the Full face veil”, says Junk. That would have left the policy and the courts the time of positioning this legally as yet unexplained issue.

support of Salafists

The student, Katharina K. has found prominent supporters. The Federal Islamic Union confirmed to the MIRROR that you will convey to Mrs K. “competent and experienced lawyers” and also the funding of care.

the Legal representative of the Association of the two converts, Marcel Krass and Dennis Rathkamp, which are firmly rooted in the German Salafist scene. Among the actions of the scene to distribute in the inner cities of free Quran copies and in order to attract new members to the Federal Ministry of the interior said the Association was behind the campaign, by the end of 2016.

The Federal Islamic Union, which was founded a year later, against head scarf bans and mandatory participation in swimming lessons at school. According to own information exclusively in a peaceful way.

“an intervention in the fundamental rights”

In the case of the Kiel Nikab ban, the Association’s President Dennis Rathkamp with other courses, in which students would have to wear in exams is partially a kind of “obfuscation”, which would be the result of the the near argued. “Examples of these are the mouth and head would be protection, which is done in medicine and dentistry to General testing and Teaching,” writes Rathkamp.

He calls this argument an open letter from more than 220 students and staff of the University, from the new “Directive for the Wearing of the face veil” distance. In the paper, went to the Bureau, objected to the “interference with the fundamental and personal rights of individual students”.

The ban would lead signatories warn that “far-reaching political discussions, and instrumentalization”. So much is clear, has occurred.