Bosnian woman 1st mayor to don hijab

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A new woman mayor in Bosnia who is the first in her country and the continent to wear the hijab headscarf, said Tuesday her election was "a model for Europe and Islam.""This is a great victory of democracy. My fellow citizens showed a great open spirit because they elected me first as a woman but also as a woman who wears a veil," respecting Islam, said Amra Babic, elected Sunday in the town of Visoko. The 43-year-old won 30 percent of the votes in the October 7 local elections in Visoko, a town of some 40,000 inhabitants near the capital city of Sarajevo.“Islam is very clear regarding the woman. It reserves for her a place in the public life and all those who interpret it correct know that this is the way it is,” she stated.A mother of three and an economist, Babic added, “I believe that my headscarf should not be a hindrance… Europe will understand that it has to do with people who respect their own identity, but who are tolerant enough to respect the rights of others.”Muslims are the biggest religious group in Bosnia and make up about 40 percent of the country’s population of 3.8 million.The hijab was banned under Communism when Bosnia was part of the federal Yugoslavia from 1945 until the early 1990s. /129