Abercrombie & Fitch firing of woman over headscarf deemed illegal
Court rules against high-end clothing retailer that fired Muslim woman who wanted to wear hijab
A U.S. federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that trendy clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch wrongly fired a Muslim worker who insisted on wearing a headscarf.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in a recent ruling that the company violated anti-discrimination laws when it fired Hani Khan from its Hollister store in San Mateo, Calif., in 2010.
The company claimed the headscarf violated its policy governing the look of its employees, which it said was part of its marketing strategy. The store argued that deviating from its look policy would affect sales.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit on Khan's behalf in 2011.
A call to a spokesman for New Albany, Ohio-based Abercrombie & Fitch was not immediately returned.
The lawsuit is one of several recent legal actions in the U.S. involving alleged discrimination over the Muslim head covering.
A similar lawsuit was filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2010 on behalf of a woman who says an Abercrombie store in in Milpitas, Calif., refused to hire her because she wore a hijab.
A Moroccan-born woman is suing the Walt Disney Co. because she says she was fired by a Disney-owned hotel when she refused to remove her headscarf.