The headline, as it appeared in the source, reads: “Two Muslim women receive compensation after refusing to shake hands with the training supervisor” for religious reasons.

TV2 published an article about the Equal Treatment Council's decision to compensate two Muslim teacher trainees after they refused to shake hands with their supervisor, leading to the suspension of their training. In both identical cases, each trainee will receive 25,000 kroner in compensation, according to the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

Based on the council's decision, there was "indirect discrimination based on religion or belief" when the training of the two Muslim trainees was stopped at the same primary school, and it is not clear which municipality will pay the compensation.

According to media reports, the story dates back to a welcome meeting in February 2019, where the two trainees refused to shake hands with the training supervisor because he was a man. Instead, they greeted the supervisor by placing their hand on their chest and bowing their heads. However, this did not align with the school where the training took place, and the school invited them to a meeting.

The Equal Treatment Council stressed in its decision that the school later demanded that the two trainees shake hands with all people regardless of gender in the future, but they refused, and therefore the training was stopped.

Nikolai Nielsen, head of the Equal Treatment Unit at the Human Rights Department, told Jyllands-Posten that the council also confirmed that the two trainees wanted (physical) contact with students regardless of gender, so it was nothing that would have an impact on the treatment of the students.

It is worth noting that in 2018, handshaking was a hot topic in Danish politics. In December of that year, the political majority voted in favor of a controversial law regarding obtaining Danish citizenship, which stipulated that in order to obtain Danish citizenship, there is a condition of attending and participating in a ceremony during which handshaking is required. The intention of this law was for people of different sexes to shake hands with each other, after the issue of Muslims refraining from shaking hands with the opposite sex for religious reasons was raised.

Source: TV2 website