Saturday, January 26, 2008

Letter to the local paper

So Bushra Noah from Acton claims religious discrimination against an employer (Gazette Jan 25). I do hope Miss Noah loses her discrimination case. It seems perfectly reasonable that a hairdresser should have to show her own hair while working. The Islamic world knows no universal requirement for head covering. I have worked in a part of Nigeria where indigenous Muslim women prided themselves on their coiffures so much that they did not cover their heads. Islam mandates modesty not head covering. Those wishing to assert their Islamic identity in this way do not deserve legal protection if work or some other proper requirement demands an uncovered head. Is it significant that Westerners in Islamic countries will usually conform to local dress codes while Muslim women here increasingly want to follow their own ways?

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