Category Archives: Women

Belgian department store worker to take legal advice over headscarf ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Joyce Van op den BoschAfter being refused an extension of her contract because she wore a headscarf to work, an employee of Hema last week turned down a new job offered by the Dutch-owned retail chain. Antwerp-born Joyce Van op den Bosch, 20, said the new offer was not satisfactory.

“This is not my old job as a saleswoman; here I have to stay in the warehouse. I won’t be accepting their offer,” she said. In addition, the contract was temporary and part time, while Van op den Bosch had been promised a full-time job.

Van op den Bosch had been employed by Randstad as temporary staff in the Hema store in Genk, where she lives. When her contract reached its end and was not renewed, she was told there had been customer complaints about her headscarf. According to a spokesman for Randstad, wearing a headscarf was “not in conformity with Hema’s company dress code”. Her contract was not renewed, he said, because she had declined to comply.

At the beginning of her employment, Van op den Bosch had asked if wearing a headscarf was acceptable, and she was told it was. She was even provided with a Hema headscarf, as worn by staff in the Netherlands. That went on for two months, then came “many negative reactions” from customers, according to Hema spokesperson Inge Van Baarsen. The company declined to say how many complaints were received.

In a statement, the company made an unusual claim: “Since in Belgium is it not customary to wear a headscarf in a public place”, Hema decided to ask Van op den Bosch to stop wearing the headscarf, which she declined to do. “We wish to stress that this decision is not connected to the wearing of a headscarf as such, but that it applies to any outward appearance which is not in keeping with the neutral and discreet image of Hema,” the statement said.

However, Jozef De Witte, director of the Belgian Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight Against Racism, said that the case appears to be discrimination. The temp agency cannot discriminate among their staff on the basis of the complaints or prejudices of a client – in this case Hema. Unless the store cancelled its contract with Randstad as a whole, it would be guilty of discriminating against one member of staff.

Randstad later admitted it had misgivings about the question of discrimination against the wearing of a headscarf and had applied earlier this month to the Centre for Equal Opportunities for advice. The centre said a headscarf was in most cases not a significant item of business clothing and so could not be grounds for dismissal. Randstad later said it could not take the centre’s advice, since a number of employment law experts disagreed.

Last weekend, Hema issued the statement: “By permitting the wearing of a headscarf and later withdrawing permission, Hema behaved unfairly towards the temporary employee. Internal rules for work clothing have now been refined, central to which is that staff should be as neutral as possible in the view of the public.”

For Van op den Bosch (pictured), nothing is decided. “This week on Wednesday I have an appointment with my lawyer,” she said. “Then we’ll know where everything stands.” Also last weekend, about 300 people took part in a demonstration organised by supporters of the right to wear a headscarf.

Meanwhile, the controversy over the headscarf was also revived again at the federal level after a member of staff of the socialists appeared in parliament wearing one. N-VA called for a ban on the display of all religious symbols in parliament, a position supported by French-speaking liberals and the far-right Vlaams Belang.

Last year Jan Peumans, N-VA speaker of the Flemish parliament, reprimanded Vlaams Belang’s Filip Dewinter after he called for the expulsion of a woman wearing a headscarf in the public gallery.

Flanders Today, 16 March 2011

Belgium: school network may decide on headscarf ban, court rules

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Belgium’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the official Flemish Community schools network has the right to decide for itself whether the Moslem headscarf or other religious symbols may be worn in their schools. However, it is another body, the Council of State, which will have the final say.

The matter came to a head after a school in Antwerp banned the wearing of the headscarf on its premises two years ago. The matter resurfaced at the beginning of last school year following controversy about a ban in two Antwerp schools. The Flemish Community schools authority then decided on a blanket ban on the wearing of ideological symbols in all its schools. The ban is set to become operational on 1 September 2011.

A year ago the Council of State suspended the introduction of the ban. Before making a ruling the Council wanted to learn whether it had the jurisdiction to rule in such a matter. The Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled that this was the case.

Tuesday’s ruling does not change anything to the present situation in Flemish Community schools, but it does give the Council of State the authority to take a decision.

Flanders News, 16 March 2011

Ban the Muslim veil, says Dutch MP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MP Jeanine Hennis from the ruling free-market liberal party VVD is calling for a ban on wearing Muslim headscarves by public servants. The politician says that all religions are equal in her eyes and that the ban should include all religious symbols.

Ms Hennis made her comments in an interview with freesheet De Pers. “When do you wear the headscarf? I’d like to instigate a debate on the matter – an open discussion on the separation between church and state,” she said. The VVD MP said she’d also like universities and schools to participate in the debate but that the Christian parties stand in the way of bringing the subject into the open. “They regard it as an infringement on freedom of religion,” she added.

RNW, 15 March 2011

See also Dutch News, 15 March 2011

Appeals court reinstates case by Californian Muslim woman forced to remove headscarf in courthouse

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A federal appeals court unanimously reinstated a lawsuit Tuesday filed by a Muslim woman who accused Southern California jailers of violating her religious freedom when they ordered her to take off her head scarf in a courthouse holding cell. An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also said plaintiff Souhair Khatib had the right to wear the scarf unless jailers can show it was a security risk.

Khatib filed the lawsuit in 2007 against Orange County. She had been jailed for several hours in November 2006 after a judge revoked her probation for a misdemeanor welfare fraud conviction. A trial court judge and a three-judge appeals court panel previously dismissed the lawsuit, saying holding cells aren’t covered by a federal law protecting the religious practices of prisoners. They held it was impractical in transitory settings such as a holding cell to honor religious practices normally allowed in more permanent institutions such as prisons.

But the 9th Circuit judges rejected that argument while allowing the case to proceed. The court did say the county can still argue that security concerns required Khatib to remove her head scarf, if it can prove the order “was the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling government interest.”

Khatib and her husband had appeared in Orange County Superior Court to ask for an extension of a deadline to complete community service, which was a requirement of their probation. They were jailed in a cell adjacent to the courthouse. During booking, jailers ordered a tearful Khatib to remove her head scarf, and she spent the rest of her time in the cell covering her head with a vest.

Associated Press, 15 March 2011

Belgium: department store offers to reinstate headscarf-wearing worker – as long as she has no contact with customers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Dutch chain store Hema has admitted that it didn’t treat its shop assistant in a fair way. Hema has proposed 20-year-old Joyce to return and to take a new job with Hema, but she refuses as it involves a position where she would no longer have contact with customers.

The Hema store in Genk (Limburg province) decided earlier this week not to extend the temporary contract of a shop assistant because she wears a headscarf. It was reported that she was violating the company’s dress code. Hema had made the decision after complaints made by customers. The young woman refused to work without her head scarf and her contract was terminated. The case quickly made the headlines in the Belgian press.

However, Hema has now admitted that it did not treat the young woman correctly. “By allowing a headscarf first and forbidding it later, Hema did not act correctly towards this temporary employee”, a statement said. It came after a meeting with Belgium’s anti-racism centre.

Hema offered the woman a new position, offering her the possibility of keeping her headscarf on. However, it would involve a job where she has no contact with customers, which is why she turned down the offer.

In Genk, a demonstration was held this afternoon to support the young woman. According to Mayor Wim Dries (Christian democrat), some 300 people took part in the march. An estimated 80 percent of them were women. The initiative for the demonstration was taken by the Islamic community.

It was agreed earlier that the demonstration would not pass the Hema store. No incidents were reported.

Flanders News, 12 March 2011

Belgium: department store fires worker for wearing headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Hema store in the Belgian-Limburg town of Genk fired one of its temporary workers for wearing a headscarf, the Flemish paper theStandaard reports on Tuesday.

The woman had asked if she could wear a headscarf and was told she could, but following negative reactions from customers, was asked to remove it. When she refused, she was fired. There were no complaints about her work, the paper says.

The woman, described as not being of foreign origin, was sent to the Hema by temp agency Randstad. It told the paper it was the client’s decision whether or not to keep one of their workers.

Dutch News, 8 March 2011

Sarkozy hails France’s ‘magnificent’ Christian heritage – one month before ban on Muslim veil takes effect

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sarkozy with nunsPresident Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of an officially secular republic, hailed France’s Christian heritage Thursday as his right-wing party questioned Islam’s role in society.

Sarkozy’s speech in the Catholic pilgrimage town of Puy-en-Velay came one month before France is due to formally begin a ban on the wearing of full-face Muslim veils in public places and amid controversy over religious identity.

Critics of the president and his majority party, the centre-right UMP, have argued against stirring dangerous prejudices and endangering France’s strictly secular identity by calling for a national debate on religion.

But Sarkzoy, who faces a tough challenge from a rejuvenated far-right in next year’s presidential election, remains undeterred, and reached out to Catholic voters in a way designed to annoy his left-wing critics.

“Christianity left us a magnificent heritage of civilisation. As a secular president, I can say that,” he said, speaking in a town that for centuries has been a way station for pilgrims heading to Santiago de Compostela. “This heritage comes with obligations, this heritage is a privilege, but it presents us above all with a duty: It obliges us to pass it on to future generations, and we should embrace it without doubt or shame,” he said.

Sarkozy’s renewed celebration of Christianity came as the leadership of his UMP party was trying to start a national debate on religious practice, and in particular on the place of France’s more than five million Muslims.

Last year’s debate on national identity raised political tension to boiling point and saw France widely criticised, particularly as it came as Sarkozy targeted foreign-born Roma Gypsies for expulsion. Opponents accused the leader, who is struggling in the polls, of stirring racial divisions in a bid to win votes from the far-right National Front, now gaining ground under its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter, Marine.

Sarkozy appears to be returning to the fray. Last month he declared that multiculturalism had been a “failure” and said that he wanted to see develop a “French Islam, not an Islam in France.” Now, UMP secretary general Jean-Francois Cope has called a meeting on April 5 to discuss religious practice “particularly that of the Muslim sect”.

On April 11, a law banning face-covering garments like the niqab or the burqa will come into effect, forcing the tiny minority of French Muslim women that wear them to remove them or face arrest and fines.

AFP, 3 March 2011

See also “Sarkozy’s Islam debate opens rift in French ruling party”, FaithWorld, 4 March 2011

France: veil ban comes into force in April

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France veil 2From Saudi tourists window-shopping on the Champs-Élysées to Muslim women in a departure lounge at Charles de Gaulle airport or the few young French converts on suburban estates, any woman who steps outside in France wearing a veil that covers her face will be breaking the law from next month.

France’s bitterly divisive debate on Muslim women’s clothing took a new turn when the legal details of the controversial “burqa ban” were published in a decree by the prime minister. From 11 April women will be banned from wearing the niqab – full-face Muslim veil – in any public place, including while walking down the street, taking a bus, at a bank, library or shop, or in a cinema or theatre. It will be illegal for a woman in niqab to visit the Louvre, or any other museum, take a train, visit a hospital or collect her child from school.

Face veils will be outlawed virtually anywhere outside women’s own homes, except when they are worshipping in a religious place or travelling as a passenger in a private car, although traffic police may stop them if they think they do not have a clear “field of vision” while driving. Women wearing niqab will be fined €150 (about £130) and be given a citizenship class to remind them of the republican values of secular France and gender equality. Any third party found to have coerced a woman into wearing the face covering, for example a husband or family member, risks a €30,000 fine and a year in prison.

Guardian, 4 March 2011

France: education minister demands that Muslim mothers on school trips leave hijab at home

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Education Minister Luc Chatel has weighed in to complicate the lives of Muslim women in France even more, in addition to the debate on Islam before the 2012 presidential election, which is being hijacked by the far right with increasing frequency. In an excessively zealous application, in the name of secularism, of the old 2004 law that bans “any symbol that displays one’s religion” in schools, he has asked Muslim moms who want to accompany their children on field trips to leave their veils at home, whether they be the full version or simple headscarves.

ANSAmed, 3 March 2011