A Muslim woman is taking her estate agency employers to an employment tribunal, alleging that she was ordered to remove her black hijab.
The un-named woman had been working at Harvey Dean in Bury for nearly a year.
A complaint filed at the Manchester Employment Tribunal says she was told that moving from a back office into public view meant “that it would be in the best interest of the business for her to change the colour of her hijab, due to the supposed terrorist affiliation with the colour black”.
The woman said she was not prepared to change her hijab for the reason given.
The following day she refused again at a meeting with the male manager who allegedly brought coloured hijabs into the office for her to wear instead.
The woman, a sales negotiator, resigned the following week.
She is now arguing that the company discriminated against her on the basis of both religion and gender.
The case will be heard at Manchester Employment Tribunal on July 20.
We did try to reach the agents for comment.
Absolutely ridiculous and not even believable
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Oh for goodness sake.
Just let the woman wear her hijab. If you were that terrified of her being branded a terrorist because it was black, you wouldn’t have hired her in the first place.
And if it is the colour black is that offensive, perhaps they should state it in the employee contract, “no employee shall wear any black items of visible clothing. This is to ensure customers don’t automatically assume that the employee is a terrorist.”
I can just imagine the conversation when the manager brought in the coloured hijabs, and it is too cringeworthy to recreate here.
We have bigger problems in the world than the colour of hijabs, and the fact that I had to write this sentence is one of them.
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Brilliant! Made my day. Now tell me another story…………
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Was there not a “uniform” policy in place when she was employed? If there was then either she should have complied from day one or the management cocked up and have to accept that they cocked up!
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