Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld a ban against wearing religious symbols, including headscarves, in schools, rejecting an appeal by seven parents from Mordovia to strike down a local government decision. The parents claimed the ban is unfair to certain faiths, despite ostensibly aiming to prevent religious discrimination, saying it infringes on their constitutional rights.

In the fall of 2014, Mordovia’s own Supreme Court also refused to overturn the ban on headscarves in schools.

The first region of Russia to ban hijabs in schools was Stavropol Krai, located in the North Caucasus, in October 2012. The decision was also challenged in court, again to no avail, and Russia’s Supreme Court later upheld the policy in July 2013.

On February 4, the head of the Russian Council of Muftis wrote President Putin a public letter, asking him “defend the headscarf.” He linked efforts to ban the hijab in schools to a “new wave of atheism” sweeping the West. Putin, however, has repeatedly spoken out against the wearing of headscarves in schools, most recently in April 2013.