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European Court of Justice
Dublin protest against EU ruling on hijabs in the workplace
Irish Muslim women feel that the ruling will directly affect their ability to find employment.
A PROTEST HAS been held outside the European Parliament’s offices in Dublin today.
The protest was organised by the Muslim Sisters of Éire and the European Network Against Racism outside the EU Parliament’s Dublin offices at 1pm.
The protest was in response by a European Court of Justice ruling that said that workplaces had the legal right to ban women from wearing hijabs to work.
This is allowed only if the company has a dress code in place against the wearing of any “any political, philosophical or religious sign”.
Rights groups including Amnesty International called the ruling “disappointing” and said that it would only encourage discrimination.
Amal Women’s Association, the Dublin based volunteer organisation representing Muslim women, said that the ruling went against EU values:
“We believe that living in the EU, a supposedly democratic open-minded place, we’d have the right to choose what we wear to work without the fear of prejudice and discrimination.”
One of their members, Nor Nasib, a Chartered Accountant, expressed how she is “disappointed and upset” by the ruling.
It’s hard enough getting professional work as accountant due to headscarf that I wear, I believe now this ruling will make Muslim women think twice before choosing to be themselves.
We have the right to wear what we want, this does not even affect our ability to work at all.
“It’s a form oppression not to be able to cover my body and have a profession. Covering or not doesn’t increase or change my ability to perform within a work environment,” says college student Ryma Halfaoui.
Solidarity-People Before Profit TD for Dublin West, Ruth Coppinger said that while the ruling said it encompasses all religious clothing, it is ‘in reality aimed at the hijab’ and would encourage Islamophobes, racists and the far-right throughout Europe.
Ruth Coppinger TD said “Just like Donald Trump claimed his travel ban wasn’t aimed at Muslims, so too the European Court of Justice claims this ruling isn’t aimed at them either. This ruling while in theory banning all religious clothing is in reality aimed at the Hijab and the Muslim community throughout Europe.
How likely is it that someone will be reprimanded at work for wearing a cross? This is clearly aimed at Muslims, but in particular Muslim women are endangered by it as they are more easily identifiable.
The European Court of Justice ruling came during a case taken by two Muslim women who were sacked from their jobs because they wore hijabs.
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