When religion clashes with the state - the state must abide by the law

Parents in Switzerland cannot force their children to boycott swimming lessons at school for religious reasons. A wise decision against religious fanatics

The Palmarian Catholic Church is a far-right sect. It does not recognize the Pope. It appoints its own pope. It has been accused of canonizing Adolf Hitler because he was anti-communist (the Palmarian Catholic Church denies glorifying Hitler).

A Swiss family, members of this sect, has been fighting in court against school authorities for years. The family says their son, born in 2016, should not take part in swimming lessons at school because looking at naked bodies is a “grave sin.” According to Swiss media, members of this sect are forbidden from watching television, going to the cinema and reading non-Catholic newspapers. Women must wear long dresses and headscarves, men shirts and ties.

Last week, the Federal Court (Switzerland's highest court) ruled that there can be no exemptions from certain subjects for religious reasons. As a result, the son of a radical Catholic family from central Switzerland must take swimming lessons. The family had argued that in such a case, their son would be expelled from the church.

In the past, legal battles with Swiss schools have been waged by Muslim families living in Switzerland. A Bosnian parent (and radical Muslim) was given a four-month suspended prison sentence for stubbornly refusing to allow his daughter to take swimming lessons at school.

Other families have also not hesitated to use legal means to impose their backward habits. The Swiss Federal Court did not give up: no one can be exempted from swimming lessons or any other subject for religious reasons. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg defended this practice in 2017: the interference with freedom of religion was considered justified. These decisions also address the integration of children into society and equality.

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A major legal drama unfolded after two Syrian boys refused to shake hands with their teacher at a school in northern Switzerland.

Although it is not a very widespread phenomenon, unfortunately, even in some Albanian families there are women who refuse to greet men with a handshake. This primitive phenomenon is present both in the diaspora and in the Albanian regions in the Balkans (Kosovo, North Macedonia and the Presevo Valley). 

In public spaces in Kosovo, in recent years, women masked with burqas have also caught the eye, where only a thin slit (slit) allows them to see the world and not get caught and break their noses when walking on the street. Surprisingly, the Kosovo authorities continue to tolerate women masked with burqas in public spaces, whose faces cannot be seen, it is not known who they are, where they come from, are they acting out of their quasi-religious beliefs or are they being pushed by fanatical men or by some foreign organization or hostile secret service?

In Switzerland, the burqa is banned and the law came into effect last year. The first person to be fined for violating the law was a Kosovar woman. She was fined last year in Bern for wearing a burqa in a shopping mall. There are also mosques in the diaspora that present themselves as “Albanian” and where underage girls wear headscarves, as these are the expectations of their parents or conservative religious leaders. In this way, girls, still immature, are reduced to the role of creatures who must be obedient to what men demand of them.

The recent decision of the Swiss Federal Court regarding the radical Catholic family shows that the state is consistent in protecting the rules and law, regardless of the religion in question.
Last December, the Austrian parliament passed a law banning headscarves in schools for those under the age of 14. The bill was passed with the votes of the governing ÖVP (conservatives), SPÖ (social democrats) and Neos (liberals), as well as the right-wing populist FPÖ party. Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP) argued that the headscarf is not a harmless piece of cloth, but a symbol of women's oppression. The law is expected to come into force next summer, at the start of the 2026/27 school year. Parents whose children wear headscarves to school despite the ban risk a fine of up to 800 euros. 

In this regard, the state of Kosovo has so far stood firm: in 2014, the wearing of headscarves in schools was banned by an administrative instruction of the Ministry of Education. In 2025, the Supreme Court of Kosovo confirmed this decision as legitimate. Last year, a wide debate took place in Switzerland about whether a teacher can teach while wearing a headscarf. A school in eastern Switzerland hired such a teacher, but after protests from parents, she was not allowed to teach.