ECHR: Swiss Muslim girls must attend mixed swimming lessons
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Switzerland has won a case at the European court of human rights over its insistence that Muslim parents send their children to mixed-sex school swimming lessons.
In a unanimous ruling, seven ECHR judges decided that the children’s integration into “local customs and mores” took precedence over the parents’ desire to exempt their children from mixed-sex swimming lessons.
The parents, who lived in Basel, had been fined €1,300 in 2010 (£1,130 at 2017 rates) for “breach of their parental duty” over their refusal to send their young daughters to mixed-sex swimming classes. In their submission to the court, the parents argued their beliefs did not allow their children to take part in mixed-sex lessons.
In a written statement on the ruling, the ECHR said school played “a special role in the process of social integration, particularly where children of foreign origin were concerned”.