The Islamic headscarf has reappeared on Bosnian streets after decades of communist prohibition, and its comeback is sharpening tensions between the country's major ethnic communities. In Sarajevo, women in Islamic dress are now a common sight, a sharp contrast to the pre-war years when headscarves appeared almost exclusively on older women in rural areas.
Bosnia's population of about 3.8 million includes a Muslim plurality of roughly 40 percent, an Orthodox Christian Serb community of 31 percent, and a Catholic Croat minority of 10 percent. In Serb- and Croat-majority areas, religious dress remains widely unwelcome, a holdover from Yugoslav-era hostility toward public religious expression.
Friction has been sharpest in Brcko, a multi-ethnic northern district governed by its own institutions. A Serb teacher refused entry to a headscarved Muslim colleague, and a Serb city councillor subsequently called for a formal ban on Islamic dress in public buildings. Bosnian law bars ethnic and religious symbols from state institutions but specifies no dress code.
Sarajevo academics are split. A political science professor argues that secular norms would serve a society still scarred by the 1992 to 1995 war, which killed up to 200,000 people. A professor of Islamic sciences counters that where Muslims form the largest community, secularism cannot simply be imposed.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in May 2007, in its own words.