This woman definitely does not comply with their strict guidelines, so she should seek employment elsewhere. It’s obvious that she wants to break their rules, and it wouldn’t surprise if she was put up to do just that, make a high profile case to set a precedent for forcing Islamization on the non-Muslims. KGS
Muslim woman files lawsuit against Abercrombie & Fitch after ‘she was fired for wearing a headscarf at work’
Last updated at 6:33 AM on 26th June 2011
A Muslim woman is taking Abercrombie & Fitch to court after she was allegedly fired from her job for wearing a religious headscarf.
The woman, who has not been named, claims bosses told her the hijab didn’t fit with the firm’s ‘look policy’ – even though she worked in the stockroom.
She was employed for several months at a California branch of Hollister Co, a subsidiary of the Abercrombie clothing chain.
The company has become well-known for its controversial ‘look policy’, which provides strict guidelines governing how employees dress.
It stipulates that staff must represent ‘a natural classic American style’ and instructs them on everything from how to wear their hair (clean and natural) to how long they should wear their nails (a quarter of an inch past the end of the finger).
The woman, from San Mateo, California, worked for the Hollister store in 2009 and 2010.
Her lawyers claim: ‘She was told that her headscarf, though worn based on a religious mandate, was not in compliance with the company’s “look policy”.’
Her contract was allegedly terminated in February 2010 after she refused to remove the hijab.
The woman’s case has been taken up the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco – Employment Law Center, which became aware of her battle through the Council on American-Islamic relations.
The suit will be filed in San Francisco on Monday, in conjunction with another case that has already been brought against Abercrombie & Fitch by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Representatives for the chain were not immediately available for comment.
In 2009 a London employment tribunal awarded 22-year-old Riam Dean £8,000 after she claimed the firm banished her to the stockroom because she had a prosthetic arm.
