Europe's first hijab-wearing mayor to take office in Bosnia

Rappler 10 October 2012

VISOKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - A new woman mayor in Bosnia who is the first in her country and the continent to wear the hijab headscarf, said Tuesday, October 9, 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, October 7, in the town of Visoko.

"This is a model for Europe but even beyond, for the East and the West which meet here in Bosnia," she told AFP at the local branch of her party, still plastered with her campaign posters.

Amra Babic, 43, who regularly wears the hijab, won 30 percent of the votes in the mayoral race in Visoko, a town of some 40,000 people near the capital of Sarajevo. (continue reading...)