Please, oh please

[lookout123]

Let this just be a Foxnews hack job of a story. Let there be some major part of the story left out. Maybe the owner shouted "get out you dirty muslim" while throwing pools of dog saliva in her direction? If not, the courts there are even more screwed than they are in the US.

Long story short, muslim woman wants job in hair salon that requires employees to display alternative and trendy styles. Muslim woman refuses to remove head scarf, woman doesn't get job. Woman sues salon and wins.

A hair salon owner in London claims her business was driven to the brink of ruin after she was ordered to pay $7,800 to a Muslim woman who claimed her feelings were hurt after she was not hired because she wouldn’t show her hair at work, The Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Wedge salon owner Sarah Desrosiers requires employees to showcase different looks for clients, as her shop specializes in alternative cuts and colors. Bushra Noah, 19, who made it clear during her interview that she would not remove her head scarf for religious reasons, accused Desrosiers of discrimination.

Desrosiers, 32, was ordered to pay Noah $7,800 for indirect discrimination by way of "injury to feelings," The Mail reported.

"She is simply someone I met for a job interview, who, for a host of reasons, was not right for the job. I cannot see how she deserves £4,000," Desrosiers told The Mail. "Because of this, there will be a black mark against my name for the rest of my life. I feel I have not done anything wrong, and this is a terrible price to pay for a meeting that lasted 10 minutes."

She was unable to prove to the court that employing someone with a headscarf would have a negative impact on her business' stylistic integrity, The Mail reported.

Noah admitted she had attended 25 interviews and not been chosen for any of them before she met Desrosiers. The extremist Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir later admitted it had "advised her."

"This has ruined my ambitions," Noah told The Mail. "Wearing a headscarf is essential to my beliefs."

Desrosiers’ lawyers are advising her on whether she can appeal the verdict.
Fox story

[Spexxvet]

This

makes me feel as uncomfortable as this

[Sundae]

It's reported by the Hate Mail. The article may be skewed.
Otherwise my guess is that her advisors are more used to fighting this kind of case than those of a hairdresser and therefore managed to present it in a way that the judge was unable to reach any other verdict.

I'll keep an ear out for more information.

[Undertoad]

BBC story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...on/7457794.stm

[Flint]

Wouldn't it be a sin for her to cut men's hair, and also participation/encouragement of a sin for her to cut women's hair--who aren't covering it up like they're supposed to? I wouldn't think it would be possible for her to work at a salon.

Edit: Oh, and btw... "INJURY TO FEELINGS" ??? WTF ??? Every person posting in the "What's upsetting you today" thread can actually SUE over that stuff? And, imagine this, actually WIN?!

[Sundae]

Again, that's just news in brief.

It appears that the bottom line is she was unable to prove in court that her salon would suffer a negative effect if she had a member of staff wearing a headscarf. Her mistake was stating this to the interviewee rather than citing another aspect which wasn't suitable as the previous 25 interviewers had obviously done.

It's rotten for the lady in question, but the laws are there to protect British citizens from being denied work for inappropriate reasons. For example a supermarket can't deny employment to someone just because they wear a hijab, because it has absolutely no impact on the work they are doing.

Had this hairdresser been able to prove that her business would suffer, it would have been a landmark case, as when the Law Lords voted that a Muslim schoolgirl's rights had not been violated when she was not allowed to wear full Islamic dress to school.

It's not "political correctness gone mad, OMG!" It's law. It doesn't always make sense in individual cases, but there are rules to be followed and everyone is subject to them if it gets that far. It takes someone to raise the case, someone to defend it and someone to go to the press in order for it to reach our ears.

[Flint]

I would think there is a legal aspect related to being qualified for the job, i.e. as a man, I couldn't reasonably expect to be hired as a waitress at Hooters. Or, as a person religiously opposed to the display of hair, I couldn't reasonably expect to be hired at a HAIR SALON. It's not "political correctness gone mad, OMG!" -- it's a SCAM. It's like the people who stop their car in front of you so you'll hit them, and then they collect from your insurance. You know, a deliberate SCAM.

[glatt]

About ten years ago when I first started doing interviewing, a labor attorney came to my firm and spoke to me and a bunch of other people about the rules for hiring. He said that in the District of Columbia, it's against the law for an employer to discriminate based on appearance. He said it was a very unusual law, and he seemed to think it had no teeth, but that the law was on the books in DC.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Flint

It's like the people who stop their car in front of you so you'll hit them, and then they collect from your insurance. You know, a deliberate SCAM.

Which is why you back over them a few times to be sure they aren't in a testifying mood. Corpses don't sue too well.

Sorry I just got back from the service industry thread...

[deadbeater]

I don't want someone else's hair falling on me while mine is being cut. It has, and believe me, it's very unpleasant. So hair covering does make sense.

[TheMercenary]

Under her black hood.....

I bet she is hot!

[lookout123]

Originally Posted by deadbeater

I don't want someone else's hair falling on me while mine is being cut. It has, and believe me, it's very unpleasant. So hair covering does make sense.

That is absolutely ridiculous. "I had a hair fall on me and didn't like it" so the muslim woman who couldn't get a job is somehow in the right?

[spudcon]

My feelings were hurt by looking at the picture of that woman. Where's my £4000 ?

[Meppin]

Muslim tradition varies, you don't HAVE to wear a headscarf/veil, unless you want to and are from a islamic republic type country. the tightened veil like that was mostly worn by the vagabons.

But why is she cutting hair if she doesn't show her hair? and where does she get her hair cut if not in public? IE a salon.
and if that's the case why aspire to be a hairdresser? be a veil designer instead.
don't liek hair fallign on you? get an apron!

If you look hard enough you'll find pictures of afghan/muslim women with veils that just sit on the crown. and it's hardly conventional when goat herding or horse handling or children chasing.
poor woman contradicts herself.
wants to cut hair, doesnt' want to show hair, doesn't like to touch it...? Maybe she's not serious about cutting hair.

[BrianR]

She wanted money and probably set the whole scene up herself, hoping for a "big score" type of mistake that she could sue for. Didn't the article say she had been turned down at, like, 42 places prior to this salon? Makes me think she wanted a lawsuit, not a job.