(15 Jul 2015) LEAD-IN:
About a hundred activists are demonstrating in the Berlin district of Neukoelln, calling for the end of discrimination against women wearing headscarves.
The demonstration, organised by a joint Muslim-Jewish organisation, comes after a local council was embroiled in controversy after allegedly denying a Muslim woman a work placement because of her headscarf.

STORY-LINE:
The district of Neukoelln in the German capital has more immigrants than most areas in Germany.
Many of Berlin's hundreds of thousands of Muslims live here, most with their roots in Turkey.
So a woman wearing a headscarf is not an uncommon sight.
But tensions flared in June after the local borough allegedly refused to offer a work placement for a recently graduated lawyer because she wore a Muslim headscarf.
In a statement, the Neukoelln borough cited religious neutrality rules that does not allow religious symbols of any kind for certain professions within the council.
On Tuesday, the joint Muslim-Jewish organisation Salaam-Schalom organised a demonstration in support of women wearing headscarves in front of the Neukoelln town hall.
One of the protestors is Huemeyra Imamoglu.
She was born in Berlin to Turkish parents and has worn a Muslim headscarf her whole adult life.
She says she often encounters discrimination, although it is mostly not direct.
"It is always a bit under the surface," she says.
"I can feel it sometimes and there are situations when I experience it directly. It makes you sad when you get treated that way even thought you are born in Berlin and a part of the society here."
The Salaam-Schalom Initiative was formed by Muslim and Jewish activists with the aim of connecting the two communities and joining forces on certain projects.
Rebecca De Vries is the Jewish spokeswoman for the initiative.
"We are in a situation where it's hard for women with headscarves in certain professions," she says.
"This varies quite a bit depending on the profession and the social status it has. There does not seem to be any problem with cleaners wearing headscarves. But when it is a teacher or a lawyer, then the society does not want to accept certain religious symbols. We want a society where it is possible to wear a headscarf and have any profession. We believe that you are qualified to do a job because of what is in your head, not because of what is on your head."
The demonstration was supported by a number of Jewish and Muslim organisations as well as the local green and left party.
The Muslim community of Berlin was established in the 1960s and 1970s when large numbers of Turkish guest workers were given visas to live and work in Germany.
Many stayed and brought up families in their new home country.
There are now around 80 mosques in the city.
Imamoglu says that the second and third generation of Muslims growing up in Germany are now becoming more active and more integrated in to German society compared to their parents.
"I think that it is getting better," she says.
"Ten years ago we Muslim kids were not that active, but now Muslims are becoming more active; they are in the media, they study and they develop their identity within the German society. Before, as children, we didn't develop our identity and we did not do anything political. But now, as we are older things have become better."

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