Muslim girls must learn to swim with boys in Switzerland after the country wins legal fight with Turkish migrant parents
Judges tell Turkish family living in Switzerland their girls must attend classes with boys despite their religious beliefs
MUSLIM parents in Switzerland cannot refuse to send their daughters to mixed school-run swimming lessons, Europe's top rights court ruled today.
A Turkish family had launched an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR), arguing the classes violated their beliefs.
The court accepted that refusing to exempt girls from the lessons interfered with their freedom of religion.
But judges ruled the interference was justified by the need to protect the children from social exclusion.
The court, which is based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, said in a statement that school plays “a special role in the process of social integration, particularly where children of foreign origin were concerned”.
The ECHR explained: “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.”
The parents who brought the case had claimed that forcing their pre-pubescent daughters to attend the classes violated their faith.
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The family complained even though authorities in Basel tried to accommodate their beliefs through a number of compromises.
The ECHR said “very flexible arrangements” had been offered, including letting their girls use a separate girls-only changing room and allowing them to wear the full-body "burkini" swimsuit.
The court also upheld a fine of 1,400 Swiss francs (around £1,130) imposed on the couple in 2010.
Judges found the fine – handed down after the couple had already been issued a warning –was "proportionate" in getting them to comply with the regulation.
The case was brought by Aziz Osmanoglu and his partner Sehabat Kocabas, whose daughters were born in 1999 and 2001.
All their appeals were rejected by Swiss courts, after which they took their case to Strasbourg.
Tuesday's ruling is not final. The couple has three months to appeal the decision.
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