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Muslim woman suspended for skirt being "too long"

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http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/278596

Nov 21, 2007 12:11 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS

A compromise has been reached in the case of a Muslim woman suspended from her job at Pearson International Airport because of the length of her skirt.

Halima Muse was suspended in August from her job as a screener with a security firm for wearing a skirt longer than the knee-length one supplied with her uniform.

The Teamsters union says Garda has agreed to offer the 33-year-old woman a full-time administrative job in civilian attire at her previous salary and to pay her full back pay for the time she was suspended.

The union says Muse will remain in the new position until the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority completes a review of the uniform policy.

Muse, a practicing Muslim, wanted to conform with the Islamic dress code that requires clothes to cover the body except the face, hands and feet.

The Teamsters union and the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations said Monday that they filed a religious discrimination complaint on behalf of Muse.
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I've wanted to talk about the article a bit since it first came out a few days ago.
 
In any case my personal take on it was that I thought both were pretty stupid. "Religious garb" is just another way of saying uniform.

At first read I thought about how stupid the employer was for suspending her. Then I thought over it a bit more and found myself thinking how stupid the whole concept of religious garb was anyways (stemming from my theory that people seem to cherry pick their religious beliefs as it suits them and calling it "doctrine") . Personally I'm glad a compromise was made as the employer, I now think does have a right to demand a uniform "uniform" (hence why they call it a uniform!). yet for some reason, a couple of inches doesn't seem too big of a deal.
 
Clothing can be a tough call unless you require all employees to wear the same uniform, and that is usually divided in two by gender variations.

I saw people cleaning in Canadian Airports with Turbans on head, and in New York, the Jewish yamulca is omnipresent.

Some of this garb, of course, can actually be hazardous in some professions and environments, allowing certain restrictions to be easily defended - but this does not seem to fit this situation from what I am reading here.

The subject is really broader than religious clothing, since cultural differences in dress have become issues in several places in the world, and sometimes even current style can present issues in the workplace.
 
I think the employer was completely off side. The skirt length has nothing to do with the performance requirements of the job. This is an issue they could have and should have accomodated.
 
^Exactly. The skirt apparently conformed in every other way except length. In no way did it affect how she did her job.
 
Are you kidding? Do you actually believe that Canadian Air Transport Security Authority exists to improve security at the airport? Obviously the purpose of CATSA is to soothe and seduce the travelling public. After the hassle of e-ticket check-in through the automated check-in terminals and can't wait to get to CATSA and soothed by those hot ladies in their short skirts and those muscular macho man. Making the skirts longer is going to have a devastating effect on their ability to perform their duties.
 
I hadn't considered your point of view. I don't disagree, so long as they put the short short skits on the muscular macho men (though I don't recall ever seeing one in the vicinity of the x ray machine).
 
Ah yes, visual diversions. Good idea. With the perceived value of Taysers going down the tubes quickly they'll need some new means of non-violent crowd control.


Of course, if the security staff is too visually distracting, more passengers will probably want to be strip-searched.
 
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