VIENNA, March 16, 2205 (IslamOnline.net) – Austrian Interior Minister Liese Prokop has backtracked on anti-hijab statements, thanks to immediate and astute action from the Muslim minority in the south-central European country.

“I respect Muslim women and their right to choose their attire,” Prokop said in press statements carried by IslamOnline.net Tuesday, March 15.

She shifted her ground following a visit by a delegation led by Amina Baghajati, the media spokeswoman for the Islamic Religious Authority (IGG), the main representative body of the Muslim minority in Austria.

Prokop told the state-run Falter magazine on March 8 that she strongly supported banning hijab-clad women from teaching in schools.

“I consider now the legality of banning hijab in schools,” Prokop told the state-run Falter Magazine Tuesday, March 8. “But, anyhow, I will throw my weight about the ban.”

Expectedly, the minister’s statements raised the ire of the Muslim minority and government officials with Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel saying Prokop was in no position to address such an issue.

Reinforcing the eminent status they enjoy under Islam, Austrian Muslim women established last month the Muslim Women Forum in Austria (FMFO) as an affiliate to the IGG to get the message across.

Muslims make up some 8 per cent of the country’s eight million population.

Islam, which was officially acknowledged in Austria in 1908, is considered the second religion in the country after Catholic Christianity.

But the problem of hijab is far from over in the country. Hijab-clad women still suffer from racial profiling and discrimination at workplace and universities for no other reason other than being veiled.

“It is hard for a hijab-clad woman in Austria to get a job opportunity,” Um Kareem, who accepted Islam 11 years ago, told IOL.

“I myself used to have a job before taking on hijab,” she added. “Austrians, in effect, look with suspicion at hijab-clad women, which is offensive.”

She said that such looks make Muslim women feel very alien to their country.

“They think that we can’t speak German and undereducated,” Um Kareem said.

FMFO president Andrea Saleh, on her part, said that Muslim women are offended by comments made by Austrians on their hijabs.

“The old proverb says ‘speak so that I can see you;’ hence, they shouldn’t be preoccupied with our hijabs.”

Um Kareem, meanwhile, advised Muslim converts to enter Islam step by step.

“My family was really shocked when they saw me in hijab….They really found it strange.”

Baghajati agreed that a Muslim woman convert should wear hijab gradually not all at once.

“I was wrong when I decided to wear hijab immediately after I embraced Islam because it really gave my mother the shock of her life,” she said.

In the last few years, hijab has become the subject of increasing controversy in European countries.

Muslim organizations across Europe have reported that discrimination against Muslim women wearing hijab peaked since September 11.

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) said in a report released on March 7 that the debate surrounding the adoption in 2004 of a French law prohibiting religious attire in public schools helped encourage intolerance and discrimination against hijab-clad Muslim women across Europe.