Muslim woman in India denied job for wearing hijab

New Delhi: An Indian social worker says she was denied a job at an orphanage based in the Indian capital of New Delhi because her recruiter felt that her hijab made her look “like a Muslim lady”. “Everything was going smoothing, we exchanged many emails,” Nedal Zoya, a graduate from Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, told Al Jazeera.

“But a few days ago, I got an email stating that ‘I am sorry to inform you that even [from] a distance of one kilometre you look like a Muslim lady due to your external Muslim gears’.” This comment was referring to her hijab, a headscarf worn by many Muslim women who feel it is part of their religion.

After being short-listed by the Delhi Orphanage for Girls in October for the post of social worker, Ms Zoya was asked, by Harish Varma, the president and chief executive officer of the orphanage, to give an online test and send a picture of herself to the organisation. Mr Varma suggested Ms Zoya remove her hijab as one of the preconditions to proceed with the recruitment process.

After Zoya refused to do as she was asked, Varma sent her an email expressing that he was “shocked” to know that “conservative Islam was her priority, not humanity”, and that all her “higher education has gone down the drain”.

In the email exchange between Mr Varma and Ms Zoya, obtained by Al Jazeera, Mr Varma expressed that he would not allow any kind of religious activities inside the orphanage.