The hijab is in the headlines again as Mark Lowen for BBC News highlights the story of 17-year old Florinda Zeka who had to give up her education following a government ban on wearing them in Kosovan public schools in March.
She says she feels "sad and discriminated against because I want to have rights like others - I want to go to school."
But Vlora Citaku, the Kosovan deputy foreign minister is adamant: ‘The scarf in Kosovo is not an element of our identity. It's a sign of submission of female to male, rather than a sign of choice’.
The decision was made late last year in accordance with the constitution that declares Kosovo a secular country. But some believe the government is driven more by the desire to present Kosovo as ‘westward-looking’, imposing ‘european values’ to improve its chances of joining the European Union.
They point to the construction of a huge new catholic cathedral in the centre of the capital Pristina, at a time when the population – 90% of whom are Muslims – are desperate for space in the city’s mosques.
Vlora Citaku says other reasons lie behind the decision to impose the ban: "I don't think a 16 or 17-year-old, let alone a five-year-old, can take the conscious decision to wear a scarf.""Rather than focusing on a marginal part, we have to take care of the majority. Many parents have expressed very strong concerns about having their children exposed in the classroom to people wearing the scarf."
At 18 there is no similar ban that would prevent a woman wearing the hijab in the country’s universities, but opinion on the streets of Kosovo is split, with an obvious concern that the wearing of traditional clothing could prompt increased radicalism amongst the Muslim population.
So in Kosovo, as in many other countries, the difficult choice is being made between allowing free religious expression or imposing secular values. As Mark Lowen points out, it is a decision that goes to the heart of any democracy.
