If you go back to the history of this episode...once the kids said ‘no handshake with women’, they had to refer this to the county/district level, and they said this exemption could be applied (never before had they given out an exemption). This just peeved off the school and the teacher involved just more. So they had to wait until some quarterly meeting occurred at the state level, where they said handshakes were mandatory and recommended the fine.
While all of this was going on....the family involved (dad over the two teenage boys was a religious scholar) was told their paperwork for a permanent visa has been shelved (it’s not moving one way or another). Nothing much is said over why, but you get the idea that they weren’t integrating or modeling themselves as a Swiss.
Maybe a hundred years ago, this male dominate thing would have been OK in most European countries. A lot has happened in the years since WW II, and it is a virtually equal society. If I were a Muslim from a really conservative lifestyle...I would be continually challenged day in and day out by staying in Europe. If one’s priority is staying ultra conservative Islam...you’d best pack up and go back ‘home’, because you and your family will be assimilated into European culture.
When we hired a Muslim female engineer we (males) were all told privately that when we were introduced to the new employee, not to offer our hand for a handshake. She would not respond and it would appear awkward. So we accommodated her wish.
It took quite a while but eventually the work environment worked itself out. She was willing to participate in engineering problem solving and was cordial to her male colleagues.
We all had secret clearances but she only had an interim secret clearance. (Not full access to all data.) I left before finding out whether she eventually got a full clearance or not.