Headscarf ruling sparks backlash
LUXEMBOURG: A European court ruling that companies can ban staff from wearing Muslim headscarves and other visible religious symbols has set off a storm of complaints from rights groups and religious leaders.
In its first ruling on an issue that has become highly charged across Europe, the Court of Justice found yesterday that a Belgian firm which had a rule that employees who dealt with customers should not wear visible religious or political symbols may not have discriminated against a Muslim receptionist it dismissed for wearing a headscarf.
The judgment on that and a French case came on the eve of a Dutch election, in which Muslim immigration is a key issue, and weeks before a similarly charged presidential vote in France, where headscarves are banned in public service jobs. French conservative candidate Francois Fillon hailed the ruling as ‘‘an immense relief’’ to companies and workers, and said it would contribute to ‘‘social peace’’.
A group backing the fired employees said the ruling could shut many Muslim women out of the workforce. European rabbis said the court had added to rising incidences of hate crime to send a message that ‘‘faith communities are no longer welcome’’.
The judges in Luxembourg concluded that the dismissals of the two women may, depending on the views of national courts, have breached European Union laws against religious discrimination.
They determined that the case of French engineer Asma Bougnaoui, who was fired by software company Micropole after a customer complaint, may have been discriminatory.
Bougnaoui wore a hijab from when she was hired in 2008. She was told to take off her headscarf in the office, despite the fact there was no existing internal rule governing it. She refused and lost her job.
Reactions, however, focused on the finding that services firm G4S in Belgium was entitled to dismiss receptionist Samira Achbita in 2006 if, in pursuit of legitimate business interests, it fairly applied a broad dress code for all staff dealing with customers, to project an image of political and religious neutrality.
G4S already had an internal policy calling for ‘‘neutrality’’ in apparel. Achbita did not begin wearing the hijab until three years after she was hired in 2003, according to court papers, and this led to her dismissal.
The Open Society Justice Initiative, a group backed by philanthropist George Soros, said the ruling ‘‘weakens the guarantee of equality’’ offered by EU laws. ’’In places where national law is weak, this ruling will exclude many Muslim women from the workplace,’’ policy officer Maryam Hmadoun said.
Even though it is non-binding, the European court ruling can be cited as a precedent, which gives it weight in ongoing culture wars.
France, for example, spent much of the last northern summer embroiled in legal disputes over municipal public bans on the burkini, a body-concealing swimsuit.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has for the first time endorsed her party’s call for a partial ban on the full-face veil known as the niqab.
The court suggested that without such a workplace policy already in place, Muslim women would have a stronger argument for demanding the right to wear headscarves if they wished to do so.
The subject is highly fraught in both France and Belgium, which have been hit by large-scale terror attacks by assailants claiming Islamic extremism as their cause.
France, which has what is believed to be Europe’s largest Muslim community, has long adhered to the concept of laicite, generally defined as an absence of religious involvement in government affairs and state policy, and vice versa. Among Western European countries, France has moved most aggressively to regulate religious garb in public, including restrictions on the niqab. - AAP, TNS