2 Muslim girls denied Swiss citizenship for refusing to swim with boys in school

Switzerland has rejected citizenship requests from two Muslim girls for refusing to take part in swimming lessons with boys at school. The girls aged 12 and 14 will no longer be considered for naturalised citizenship because they have not complied with the school curriculum, authorities in Basel said.

The girls are understood to have refused to take part in school swimming lessons because boys were present and their religion forbade that form of interaction, according to USA Today . Their applications for Swiss passports have now been overturned.

Meanwhile, the father of two other girls who refused to let his daughters swim with boys was fined $4,000 swiss francs (around £2,900) by a district court in another part of the country. Stefan Wehrle, president of the country's naturalisation committee, told TV station SRF that "whoever doesn't fulfil these conditions, violates the law and therefore cannot be naturalised."

The father, who was fined by a court in Altstaeten in the north-east of the country , had been in trouble with authorities previously for requiring his daughters to wear head veils in school, according to The Local. In the end, his eldest daughter was granted the right to wear a veil to school by Switzerland's highest court on the grounds of religious freedom.

The two cases in Switzerland are the latest in a series of refusals by authorities to grant immigrants citizenship for cultural reasons.

Two Muslim brothers who refused to shake hands with their female teacher on the grounds of religious restriction were also the centre of widespread media coverage and public uproar. The boys' father, an imam at the Basel mosque, immediately had his naturalisation request suspended by authorities, while any parent or guardian who refuses to shake a teacher's hand can now expect a $5,000 fine.

Yet the case is not always limited to instances of religious difference. The resident-led committees which lead recommendations for immigrants gaining citizenship have previously rejected applications on the grounds of people not seeming "Swiss enough".One immigrant family from Kosovo, who had been in the country for a decade, was told their tendency to wear shabby clothing and not greet passersby was proof of their lack of integration.

(Source: The Independent)