Last year I followed the case of a young American woman applying for a job at an Abercrombie&Fitch store in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Samatha Elauf did well during the interview, but there was a problem. During the conversation she was wearing a headscarf hijab and she wasn’t offered the job.
With the help of the Council of American-Muslim Relations, she brought the case to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Abercrombie’s lawyers defended that headscarf wasn’t accepted as company’s code (emulating the one of the prestigious Ivy League), but, the court agreed with the plaintiff.
However the District Court in Denver reversed, citing that since she did not ask directly whether a headscarf would interfere with work, Abercrombie’s employees did not have to presume that reasonable accommodation, which adjustments to the workplace or as a result of special conditions (another would be a pregnancy, would be needed.
Samantha’s lawyers did not give up. They appealed to the United States. Supreme Court. This year, almost eight years after the interview in the shopping mall in Tulsa, judges almost unanimously (eight of nine) determined she was right. They ruled that Abercrombie violated Article VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says that religious discrimination when hiring is prohibited.
Samantha found a different job with another famous retailer. She is now happily married and has a fashion blog.
A few days after the attacks in Paris, I received a newsletter from an American HR society. It contained links to information on how one can help the victims, statistics about Muslims living in the US (not even one percent of the population), as well as how to avoid Islamophobia in the workplace.
Last month on nearby Solano Avenue, I drank coffee twice in an Iranian bistro. Once I even got it complimentary when I only asked for a half of a large cup. Today I also used the tailoring services of an Iranian family. On their window exhibition I noticed an American flag,
This week a map appeared in the media showing American states refusing to accept refugees from Syria. One of them is a Oklahoma, where Samantha lived; she comes from a family of immigrants.
