When a Muslim woman had sued Abercrombie & Fitch Co who dealt with clothes sales in Oklahoma for discrimination against her and had denied sales job because of religious reasons as she wore a head scarf thus on Monday US Supreme Court had said in favour of Muslim woman. The decision was on 8-1 basis which was on religious rights case and the Supreme Court supported Samantha Elauf. She was denied the job as she had come wearing a head scarf as per her religion and thus Abercrombie said it was against their look policy and denied job to her.
US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) a federal agency who had sued Abercrombie on behalf of Elauf when she was turned down the job in Tulsa and it was a major victory to the agency. Elauf told that she was happy and glad that she stood up for her rights and that EEOC had helped her in the process and brought the matter before the court. Earlier Elauf had won $20,000 before a federal district court which 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver had reversed the ruling but High Court upheld the federal district court’s judgment and backed Elauf. This ruling is very much welcomed in America at present when the Muslim community is under Islamophobia was told by Nihad Awad who is executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations. This was the second decision which the high court has made that has come in favour of Muslims, who most of the times allege discrimination in the country. This has helped to take a bigger view of the religious rights of the people.
As a Muslim Elauf had not specified that if she wanted a religious accommodation by the company. Justice Antonin Scalia in his opinion told that her need to get an accommodation was the major factor wherein Abercrombie’s decided not to hire her. The look policy of the company was to promote the brand’s collegiate image of East Coast. Many Muslims had supported Elauf and had told in the court papers that there was huge discrimination which was being done in employment level against the Muslims across USA. EEOC has confirmed that Muslim community people file this discrimination claims compared to any other religious groups.
by Sushma Javare.
