A boy jumps into the water of a public swimming pool in Berlin | Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images Muslim parents must send children to mixed swimming lessons, court rules Human rights court rules against Muslim pair who wanted daughters to skip swimming lessons with boys.

Muslim girls cannot be exempt from mixed swimming lessons, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday.

The Strasbourg court dismissed an appeal by Muslim parents in Switzerland who argued that their daughter should not have to attend swimming classes alongside boys.

The court said the need for a full education prevailed over the parents’ wish to have their children exempted from mixed swimming lessons, the ECHR said in a press release, adding that schools had a "special role" to play in integrating children, especially those from foreign backgrounds.

The case was brought by Aziz Osmanoǧlu and Sehabat Kocabaş, two Swiss nationals who also have Turkish nationality. They refused to send their daughters to compulsory mixed swimming lessons, claiming their beliefs prohibited them from allowing their daughters to swim with boys. The parents argued that obliging their daughters to attend mixed lessons was a violation of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights — covering freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

The parents were fined €1,292 “for acting in breach of their parental duty.”

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