Hundreds of Muslim women wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf also known as hijab protest in Sarajevo’s historical center, on February 7, 2016.

Some 2,000 people, mostly women, protested on Sunday in downtown Sarajevo against a recent ban on wearing a hijab headscarf in the majority Muslim country’s judicial institutions.

“We gathered to protest against prejudices, discrimination and marginalization,” Samira Zunic Velagic, one of the protest organizers, told the crowd.

“The ban of wearing hijab in judicial insititious is a serious attack against Muslim honor, personality and identity, a violation … aimed at depriving them of their right to work,” she added.

The protest was sparked by a recent decision of Bosnia’s high judicial council, a body tasked with supervising the functioning of the judiciary, to ban “religious signs” in judicial institutions.

The decision which concerns judges and other employees in the sector, but does explicitly mention hijab — a scarf which covers hair, ears and neck — was strongly condemned by Bosnia’s Muslim political and religious leaders as well as numerous local Muslim associations.

The protestors marched for around an hour through the capital’s center carrying banners that read “Hijab is my Daily Choice,” “Hijab is my Right” or “Hijab is my Life.”

“We came here to say that we are not the victims of this scarf. We came to defend our rights. It is our crown, our liberty, our honor,” Elisa Hamovac, a 33-year-old stay-at-home mother, wearing a light blue hijab, told AFP.

Muslims make up around 40 percent of Bosnia’s population of 3.8 million and are mostly followers of a moderate form of Islam. The others are mostly Orthodox and Catholic Christians.

Hijab was banned by the communist authorities while Bosnia was still part of the former Yugoslavia until 1992 when it proclaimed independence.

Today many Muslim women wear hijab, with some being completely veiled. However, most are not veiled.

Related articles across the web

• Bosnians protest against hijab ban in judiciary
• Pope Francis really is a saint.
• PEGIDA protesters clash with police in Calais
• Why Can't We Be Friends? It's Christian Unity Week!
• Watch Live - 50,000 Gathered In NYC Poised To Clash With Police In the "Occupy Wall Street" Protests
• Will Bay Bridge blockers go free?
• Iraqi Kurds protest against Turkey, 3 police wounded
• -Pope Francis Defends Traditional Marriage
• Video: On the Street with the Protestors in Moldova
• Protestors clash in Reading over refugee crisis