Muslim girls to learn to swim with boys in Switzerland - Court rules

European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled in favour of Switzerland's educational authorities for Muslim girls to take mixed swimming lessons with boys. It comes after two Swiss-Turkish parents from Basel, Aziz Osmanoǧlu and Sehabat Kocabaş had refused to send their daughters to mixed swimming lessons on the basis of their religion. 

The Turkish parents were ordered to pay a fine of CHF 350 per parent and child, a total of CHF 1,400  for 'acting in breach of their parental duty' in 2010.

At the court hearing Tuesday, a panel of seven judges who gave backing to the fines, also revealed that the freedom of religion had been 'interfered with'. But the interference, it said, was justified by the need to protect the children from social exclusion.

The Court ruled that the school played a special role in the process of social integration, particularly where children of foreign origin were concerned.

Source: Aljazeera