Five years ago, Fatima Afif was fired from her job at the private Baby Loup nursery school in the French town of Chanteloup-les-Vignes, just west of the capital Paris, for refusing to take off her veil while at work, reports France 24.
After years of legal battles and appeals, France’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that Afif’s was unfairly fired as a victim of “religious discrimination”.
In a summary of its ruling, the court explained that because Baby Loup was a private institution whose staff did not provide a public service, the French value of secularism did not apply. It also ordered the nursery school to pay a fine of 2,500 euros to Afif.
“Restrictions on religious freedom must be justified by and proportionate to the nature of the work, as well as respond to an essential professional need,” the court’s ruling read, saying that Baby Loup’s grounds for dismissing Afif were not sufficient.
“If these requirements are not met, an employee’s dismissal for serious misconduct on the basis that he violated the provisions of this clause constitutes religious discrimination, and therefore must be declared void,” the statement continued.
Read more of this report from France 24.