Muslim job applicant: Hire me or else –
From the Daily Mail
How I nearly lost my business after refusing to hire a Muslim hair stylist who wouldn’t show her hair
By Natasha Courtenay-Smith
18 June 2008
It seems too lunatic to be true. But here a hair salon boss reveals how she was driven to the brink of ruin – and forced to pay £4,000 for ‘hurt feelings’ – after refusing to hire a Muslim stylist who wouldn’t show her hair at work.
For Sarah Desrosiers, meeting Bushra Noah was not a moment in her life that she would describe as especially memorable.
Not only was it brief – lasting little more than ten minutes – but it was rapidly obvious to Sarah that Bushra was not the person for the junior stylist position she was trying to fill at her hairdressing salon.
Sarah’s reasoning? Quite simply that Bushra, a Muslim who wears a headscarf for religions reasons, had made it clear she would not be removing the garment even while at work.
Sarah Desrosiers says she did nothing wrong by not employing Bushra Noah and would have done the same if an employee refused to remove a baseball cap
Sarah felt that a job requirement of any hairdresser was that the stylist’s hair would provide clients with a showcase of different looks. Especially one working in a salon such as hers, which specialises in alternative cuts and colours.
Yet the ten minutes during which Sarah’s world collided with Bushra’s has resulted in an extraordinary employment battle, in which she was accused of ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ discrimination.
For a year, Sarah has been facing financial ruin, due to a compensation claim for £34,000 brought by Bushra, 19, who has maintained she is due that figure after being turned down for a job at the Wedge salon in London’s King’s Cross.
In the event, the tribunal ruled this week that while Bushra’s claim of direct discrimination failed, her claim for indirect discrimination had succeeded.
Sarah has therefore been ordered to pay £4,000 compensation by way of ‘injury to feelings’.
Although this is a smaller sum than she’d feared she might have to hand over, Sarah, 32, is still outraged.
‘I am a small business and the bottom line is that this is not a woman who worked for me,’ says Sarah.
‘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.
‘As for the notion that I’ve injured her feelings – well, people’s feelings get injured every day. I dread to think the sorts of things that people will try to claim injured feelings for now that this precedent has been set.’
In its ruling, the tribunal said it was ’satisfied that Bushra was not treated less favourably than Sarah would have treated any woman who, whether Muslim or not, wears a hair covering at all times when at work’.
Accordingly, the claim of direct discrimination failed.
But with regard to the issue of indirect discrimination, they found that Sarah had pursued a ‘legitimate aim – that aim being to promote the image of the business’.
However, the burden of proof was on Sarah to prove that her means of achieving that legitimate aim was proportionate.
She was not able to prove her contention that employing someone with a headscarf would have the negative impact on her business’s stylistic integrity that she feared.
Since the judgment, Bushra, who is of Syrian descent and has worn a headscarf since she was 13, has, so far at least, chosen not to comment.
But, speaking last year, she admitted she had attended 25 interviews for hairdressing jobs without success.
But Sarah, she told the tribunal, had upset her the most.
She said: ‘I felt so down and got so depressed. I thought: “If I am not going to defend myself, who is?” Hairdressing has been what I’ve wanted to do ever since I was at high school.
Bushra Noah (left) and Sarah Derosiers (right) arriving at court during the employment tribunal battle
‘This has ruined my ambitions. Wearing a headscarf is essential to my beliefs.’
Bushra had a job in a salon in London, where her tasks included cutting hair, highlighting, tinting and perming, before she left to get married in Syria in 2006.
But on her return to Britain, she was unable to find work.
She has given up her ambitions to become a hairdresser and is studying travel and tourism at Hammersmith and West London College while working part-time in a shop.
At the tribunal, Bushra was asked if Sarah had made derogatory remarks about her headscarf.
She replied: ‘She did not. She just asked me if I wore it all the time, or whether I’d take it off.’
Although Bushra is believed to have been acting alone, in the past similar cases have been championed by Muslim traditionalist groups.
In 2006, the Law Lords overturned a court ruling that teenager Shabina Begum’s human rights were violated when she was banned from wearing full Islamic dress at school.
Enlarge Sarah in her salon – Wedge – located in north London says that the discrimination case against her almost ruined her business
The extremist Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir later admitted that it had ‘advised her’.
Meanwhile, Sarah Desrosiers is wondering how to raise the £4,000 she has been ordered to pay Bushra. She has spent her savings on her legal battle and simply has no money left.
‘I am a one-woman band, and am already in debt due to the set-up costs of opening my own salon,’ says Sarah. ‘I dread to think how many haircuts I’m going to have to do to earn the £4,000 I have to pay Bushra. This has, without doubt, been the worst year of my life.’
Such a messy set of circumstances, let alone the strain of having the case brought against her, was certainly not what Sarah expected when she started out on her career aged 17.
From the outset, she had grand ambitions, telling her mother that she would one day have her own salon.
‘Even back then, I realised how important your own hair is to the job,’ says Sarah. ‘I went into hairdressing a rather plain brunette, but within a few weeks I had a bright red crop.
‘I wanted to provide clients with inspiration through my own hair. Whether they’re in a conventional High Street salon, or something slightly different like my salon, customers expect to see the stylists with hair that is on trend, striking and can give them ideas for their own look.’
Read the whole story here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1027300/How-I-driven-brink-ruin-refusing-hire-Muslim-hair-stylist-wouldnt-hair.html
A note from Radarsite: “It seems too lunatic to be true.” But it is true, and it is happening. And unless there’s a drastic change in our self-destructive multicultuaralist attitudes, it’s going to be happening more and more. It’s pretty obvious who the victim here is in this gross miscarriage of “justice”.
Can we do anything about this? Can we turn this around? Can we finally start protecting our own citizens first?
Unfortunately, the signs don’t look too promising. – rg
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Posted by Roger W. Gardner on June 18, 2008 5:57 pm
» Filed Under Islam, News, Stupidity
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11 Responses to “Muslim job applicant: Hire me or else –”
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Does Sarah Desrosiers have a paypal account? I would be happy to make a donation.
I lived in England for 5 years and used to think that France would become the first Muslim state in Europe, but everytime I go back and read stories like this I think that England will go first. It is no longer the England I loved. What happened to the gutsy rebelious people I know and love.
Screw GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. GOD SAVE ENGLAND!
Thank you both Lori and Rob.
To Lori — all I have is this:
“her salon – Wedge – located in north London”. I’ll see if I can find out anything more.
I must say, that is damn nice of you.
rg
To Lori — Here is a copy of the comment I left to the Daily Mail. Whatever info I get I’ll leave in another comment to this post.
People like yourself make writing articles for blogs worthwhile. rg
“After cross posting this moving story to Stop The ACLU, a popular American website, I received a reply from a generous commenter who would like to contribute to Sarah’s cause.
Can you help with this?
You may feel free to email me.
Thanks.
Roger W. Gardner”
Roger, if you get any further info, and feel you would rather not post it publicly, where can I contact you? I went to your website but could not find your email on the “bio page”.
Thanks,
Lori
Here is a copy af an email I just sent to the Unilever Corp. I believe they are one of the largest suppliers to hair salons in Britain:
Dear Unilever –
Hello, I am an American blogger(http://radarsite.blogspot.com/ ),
my name is Roger W. Gardner. I just wrote an article for Stop the ACLU.com, a popular American website. It concerns the legal difficulties of a London hairderesser who may be losing her business due to a frivilous and outrageous lawsuit brought by a Muslim woman who feels that she was discriminated against because of her veil.
One of the commenters to my story wanted to know if there was any way she could help Ms. Desrosiers finacially, and I am trying to see what I can do about that.
In the meantime, however, it occured to me that you just might be willing to help. If I am not mistaken, you have a definite relationship with British hairdressers, and might be tempted to help one of them who needs it.
This case — as you probably already know — has garnered worldwide attention, and I feel that it would be a wonderful gesture on your part to reach out to this beleaguered hairdresser.
Other than writing about it, and deeply caring about the issues involved, I have no personal interest in this matter.
However, if you do decide to help, I promise to write a follow up article about your generosity and place it in as many US venues as possible.
Please read my article and let me know if you feel it is a cause that you would like to take up. I think that you would generate a lot of good publicity for a very worthy cause.
Here is the article: http://www.stoptheaclu.com/archives/2008/06/18/muslim-job-applicant-hire-me-or-else/
Thank you for your time,
Respectfully,
Roger W. Gardner
Radarsite
Boston, MA USA
And here’s a copy of an email I just sent to the Promotion Department of the Dail Mail:
Re:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1027300/How-I-driven-brink-ruin-refusing-hire-Muslim-hair-stylist-wouldnt-hair.html
I am an American blogger who has posted two articles about this story. One of my commenters wanted to know if there was any way they could help Ms. Desrosiers through a Paypal account.
Obviously, I don’t have the answer to that question, but perhaps you do.
Furthermore, it occured to me that the Daily Mail might want to set up some kind of fund to help Ms. Desrosiers. Isn’t it about time that you Londoners started looking after you own?
Respectfully,
Roger W. Gardner
http://radarsite.blogspot.com/
Boston, MA
In America Bushra Noah would be covered by the Civil Rights Act with no trouble at all as prejudice in hiring based on religious practices is definitely a violation if reasonable accommodations can be made. About the only question there would be is if Congress has the actual jurisdiction to regulate the behavior of businesses in the boundaries of a state. Contrary to the claims here though this is not about Muslim forcing their beliefs on others but rather it is about a Muslim being allowed to practice her own beliefs i.e. wearing a head scarf. From what I see she is fairly moderate.
Kerwin —
“From what I see she is fairly moderate.”
From what I see you are fairly wrong. It is precisely about Muslims forcing their beliefs on others.
rg
Well, she’s got a system down now, she can just interview all over and sue anyone who refuses to hire her (or does hire her and then fires her for any reason), claiming discrimination and “hurt feelings.” She’ll never have to WORK again.
My feelings have been hurt more times than I can count, by family, friends, coworkers, employers, and even government agencies. Maybe I’m in the wrong line of work, actually being PRODUCTIVE, when I could just sue for all that mental anguish I’ve suffered and sit on my rump collecting a payday. Ahhhhh….. the New American Dream…..
The actions of this girl make me sick. She can’t get a job and gets “depressed,” so she lashes out at the easiest target. That’s my opinion on what happened here, not that she was feeling hurt about her veil in the workplace but just that she was depressed about being unemployed. Did she sue all the other previous companies who declined to hire her, presumably for the same reason? Although that’s not indicated in the article, it’s unlikely she did or it would have been documented; that she did not sue all the prior prospective employers proves to me this was not about discrimination or even hurt feelings but about her own inner incapacity to deal with stressors like being unemployed.
Exactly Angie. Thank you.
rg