Headscarf barrier lifted for Swiss passport

Switzerland's highest court on Wednesday overruled a decision by a regional authority to deny citizenship to a 40-year-old mother of Turkish origin because she wears an Islamic headscarf known as hijab in Arabic.

"The wearing of a headscarf has no link to the expression of a lack of respect for constitutional order," the Federal Tribunal said in a statement.

The woman, who has lived in Switzerland since 1981, had her citizenship application shot down by 19 votes to 15 by the canton of Aargau's Buchs commune over her headscarf.

The court ruled that wearing a headscarf is an expression of participation in a religious community which falls under the constitutional guarantees of freedom of conscience and religious beliefs.

It does not translate into a lack of respect to the constitutional order nor does it belittle women, it added.