Excerpt:
Yasemin Okutansoy teaches English and Islam at a secondary school in Bonn. Boys whose mothers wear headscarves have asked Okutansoy, who is Muslim, “why don’t you wear a headscarf?” She has explained to her pupils that she is not obliged to wear one. She discussed and analyzed the respective sections in the Quran with her class, arguing that wearing the headscarf has more to do with the culture associated with religion. The headscarf originally served to protect from heat and sand in the desert, she believes. But anyone may dispute that, she says, given that “everyone is free to form their own opinion.” By the same token, everyone must be tolerant of dissenting opinions, Okutansoy added, and nobody may be forced to wear a headscarf.
So what about the girls attending her school? Okutansoy says that about 70 percent of the pupils there are Muslim.