The Tulsa World is reporting on a lawsuit in Oklahoma that may have national implications. A teenager was refused a job at Abercrombie & Fitch because she wore a hijab, a religiously mandated head scarf. A district manager allegedly told her that the hijab, which Elauf wears in observance of her religious beliefs, did not fit the store's image. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)-Oklahoma helped her file a complaint with the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claiming religious discrimination.
This case is not a good thing. The EEOC office in Oklahoma is falling all over itself proclaiming that they are going to end religious discrimination in hiring and that businesses cannot hire people based on a particular marketing strategy or a particular look. Ok. Let's think about where this goes. Is it a right of a business to hire people whose appearance is in keeping with their image? I would be happy if Abercrombie & Fitch never sold another piece of clothing to American teenagers--I think they have coarsened the way our teenagers look--but I would not challenge their freedom to sell the clothes they sell. Is it their right to hire people who have the 'look' that they sell? Would you frequent a gym where the receptionist was obviously obese? If you ran a vegetarian restaurant, would you hire Ted Nugent to do your television advertisements? Would you hire a luxury car saleman who insisted on wearing unironed jeans to work? Would you hire a priest as a dealer in a blackjack casino (I doubt he would take the job!)? But you see where this leads. There has to be a balance between the right of the employer to hire people who will fit in with his organization and the right of someone to be fairly considered for employment.
Depending on how this case is settled and how it is appealed, it could negatively impact anyone trying to run a successful business.
This is a total afterthought, but it makes me question the actual origins of this case. Why would a young girl modest enough and devout enough to wear a headscarf want to work in a place that sold clothes that trended toward immodesty? Is there more to this lawsuit than meets the eye?
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