The boss tells her to 'keep religion out of the office'.
Published: Sat 6 Aug 2016, 3:59 PM
Updated: Sun 7 Aug 2016, 8:59 AM
- By
- Curated by Yousuf Saifuddin Kapadia
A Muslim woman said she was fired as she refused to remove her hijab at work.
A Muslim woman was terminated from her job at a dentist's clinic because of her hijab.
She claimed her boss immediately took her aside and told her to remove it to keep a "neutral environment", adding that the hijab would offend patients.
On her third day of work at the Fair Oaks Dental Care in Virginia, when Najaf Khan went in to work wearing her head scarf, she claimed her boss immediately told her to remove it.
According to Khan, she was told that she would have to remove her hijab otherwise she would lose her job, and she refused, The Independent reported.
The story has since gone viral online.
Talking to the media, Khan said she was excited to begin work at the clinic and that she wanted to become a dentist.
"I was astonished because he had been saying I was doing so well. I received an email the Friday morning saying how much positive enthusiasm I was bringing to the dental office. I didn't think it was going to be a big issue. I was completely aware he might ask me, but I didn't know it would come down to the fact that if I wear it, I can't work there," she told told Fox News.
Reacting to the incident, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling for the dental clinic to reinstate Khan, as well as compensate her for economic and emotional suffering.
'The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on a Virginia dental office to re-hire and compensate a Muslim woman who was allegedly fired because she wears an Islamic head scarf, or hijab.'
The Fair Oaks Dental Care clinic could not be immediately reached for comment, the Independent reported.
Commenting on her decision to wear a hjiab, Khan said that she did not wear it on a regular basis, including at the interview, but decided to put it on after the weekend at her third day at work.
Earlier in 2008, another Muslim US woman faced discrimination for her hijab. Samantha Elauf who was not hired at Abercrombie & Fitch in 2008 because she wore a headscarf.
While the company defended their Oklahoma store's "look policy" for sales staff. She argued that the company had violated her civil rights and won her case in June 2015.
Recent incidents of 'hijab/niqab discrimination'
However, earlier this month a 32-year-old Muslim woman has accused a US department store of discrimination after she was asked to leave the retail outlet for wearing the traditional Islamic veil or the 'niqab'.
Also, in July this year, a 25-year-old girl in New Zealand was left embarrassed after she applied for a job at a jewellery shop and was told it was a "waste of time" unless she removed her hijab.
The hijab debate
Lately, the right to wear hijab or niqab in the West has been a hot topic of debate, with two lawsuits filed in California in May this year, claiming that Muslim women were discriminated against in separate incidents because of their religion and for wearing the hijab.
A new study has claimed that it may be easier to determine the truthfulness of a woman wearing a headscarf or even a veil when testifying, contrary to the opinions of some courts which believe that it is necessary to see a person's face to detect deception.
"The presence of a veil may compel observers to pay attention to more 'diagnostic' cues, such as listening for verbal indicators of deception," said Amy-May Leach from University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Canada.
Despite cases of discrimination on the rise in the US, the country has a hijab-clad Muslim woman representing them in the Rio Olympics in the sport of fencing. Ibtihaj Muhammad, an African-American, was also listed among Time 100 most influential people list.
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