In response, the German Education and Science Workers’ Union (GEW) said on Tuesday that the ruling was a step in the wrong direction. “A ban on full body veils is completely the wrong way,” said GEW spokeswoman Ilka Hoffmann to newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. “We should encourage this kind of transformation process, not hinder it.”Still, the union sees things differently when it comes to teachers themselves wearing a niqab or burqa. A burqa or niqab does not go along with that. Merkel, meanwhile, said she thought wearing a burqa made it "almost impossible" to integrate into German society.

Source: The Local August 23, 2016 12:45 UTC