Malika Bayan sitting in court during a hearing in Sandnes, Norway | Carina Johansen/EPA Hairdresser fined for turning away Muslim in hijab The Norwegian court said it had no doubt the hairdresser was discriminating against the veil-wearing woman.

A Norwegian court on Monday fined a hairdresser around €1,000 for discrimination after she refused to serve a woman wearing a hijab.

Merete Hodne, the owner of a hair salon in the southwestern town of Bryne, could have been jailed for up to six months for religious discrimination after turning away Malika Bayan in October last year, AFP reported.

Instead, the court fined her 10,000 krone (€1,075) and ordered her to pay 5,000 krone in court costs.

"The court ... has no doubt that the defendant acted intentionally, that she deliberately discriminated against Bayan by expelling her from the salon because she is Muslim," the court said.

Hodne's lawyer told Norwegian press agency NTB she would appeal the decision.

The hairdresser denied the accusations of religious discrimination, telling the court she saw the hijab -- an Islamic veil covering the hair -- as a "totalitarian symbol."

Hodne had refused to pay a 8,000 krone fine that a lower court had ordered her to pay.