From Business Week (hat-tip: Brian T):
A Muslim woman sued a national jewelry chain Tuesday for allegedly not hiring her because she wore a headscarf, the plaintiff’s attorneys said.
Shereen Attia, 24, of Fairfield, had worked for Whitehall Jewelers Inc. in a Solano County mall as a part-time sales associate starting in 2004. She received good reviews but was fired when business slowed. Her manager invited her to reapply six months later, in Oct. 2006, when a full-time employee quit, according to the suit filed in Solano Superior Court.
Between employment, she’d become more religiously observant and started wearing a headscarf that covers her hair and neck, but not her face.
When Attia turned in her second application to work at the suburban San Francisco store, she was wearing her headscarf. She never got a call back from the company, she said.
Attia charged in the suit that the district manager had advised her former manager against hiring someone with a headscarf.
“I felt betrayed,” said Attia. “I had worked for the company for more than a year and had a proven track record. I was a good sales person. I’m still the same person with the same personality.”
A spokeswoman said the Chicago-based company didn’t comment because executives had not yet reviewed the suit.
The Asian Law Caucus, which filed the suit for Attia, said Muslims, Sikhs and Middle Easterners still face discrimination at the workplace.
“People who are perceived as different because of a headscarf or turban, an accent, or an ethnic name are especially vulnerable,” said staff attorney Shirin Sinnar. “It’s no excuse for an employer to say, ‘We’re not prejudiced, but our customers won’t like it.’”
It’s very interesting how the actual cause of this entire affair is ignored: Islam. Instead, the Asian Law Caucus (there’s that misleading term ‘Asian’ at work again) is attempting to approach this on a sweeping basis, dragging Sikhs into the same case as this Muslim woman. That must disgust Sikhs, since their entire Hindu sect was formed as a defensive movement against the incursions and violence from Muslims in India against pacifist Hindus.
This isn’t about the head-covering, my dear. This is about you flaunting Islam in the face of suspicious and reasonably frightened customers by means of your Islamic head-covering. While there is a case to be made that more awareness of the differences between Sikh and Muslim should be clarified for the American public, the fact that a practitioner of Islam is cause for upset at this particular jewelry company should be no shock to anyone!
The suit seeks unspecified monetary compensation for lost wages and benefits, compensatory damages and punitive damages against the company as well as legal costs.
You can voice your support for Whitehall Jewelers here.
Podcasts Archive
Does this woman know with absolute certainty that she was turned down because of wearing a headscarf? Of course not-every day people with great qualifications are turned down for jobs for various reasons but here we go again in this case-”I was rejected because I’m of the peaceful ones-that’s the ONLY reason this could be so”. Once again it’s the old victimization game-no doubt CAIR smells blood in the water. It’s just a matter of time before that shark is sighted.
Have you noticed that more and more muslimas are wearing hijabs?
I knew several muslimas in college. Not one wore a hijab.
The wearing of the hijab has become a movement. Pushing the envelope, so to speak. And often the West doesn’t push back.
I’ve taken to referring to the hijab, the veil, et al as gizmos. Just my little bit of pushing back–refusing to acknowledge the existence of their culture.
It’s klanswear, except that:
- the people wearing them are Muslims, not White supremacists;
- the people wearing them are women, not men
Europe’s running out of Europe. Muslims could not win a lawsuit, so now they intend to issue a fatwa. (respect for the law of the land you know)
This piece is so revelent on muslim loyalty to their host nations and their expectation of special status, I thought it should be put up here.
Originally posted by The Opinionator at UP Pompeii 14 Jul 2007
Also notice how the “Danish” muslims totally discount the judges ruling and immediately retaliate by issuing a fatwa.”to satisfy muslims in the middle east” - islamic sharia law immediately takes precedent & Danish law is ignored by these “fine members of Danish society”. and why are these “Danish” muslims worried about the middle east when they are supposedly “Danes”? = just another sign that muslims are always muslims first and cagily pretend to be members of Danish, British, etc societies only to get their clutches onto our social benefits and infiltrate our government, police, etc. for their self serving nefarious purposes.
It is high time more judgements are issued against muslims who seek to dominate our lives and control our lands.
It is high time that the sham of muslim integration be exposed for the lie it is - otherwise we would be seeing the so called “moderate” muslims take to our streets to oppose radical islam (see my 7/7 post on glasgow muslim rallie a flop). muslims would immediate tell authorities of any muslims who were threats to our society and ban radicals from their midst. but don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen - it won’t!
There are no true muslim citizens of the UK/RU - there are only muslims.
this girl made this issue outta nothing. probably she made up this story to get money from this company. and she is pretending as a good muslim . she doesn’t represent the good muslim. she even barely read the quraan . i can tell from the way she read the quraan . plus she made her mom as an issue cause she is an italian american. so wat? she is a hypocrete. just to get the money