US

Abercrombie & Fitch faces another diversity lawsuit

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Hani Khan, a San Mateo Muslim woman who allegedly lost her job at Hollister Co. for refusing to take off her hijab at work, filed suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California against the clothing store’s parent company Abercrombie & Fitch Monday.

According to reports, Khan — who worked at Hollister Co. for four months in 2009–10 — was initially told her headscarf would not be a problem, so long as she wore company colors.

In February, however, a district manager and corporate human resources manager requested she no longer wear it. When she balked at their order, she was suspended and subsequently terminated.

“When I was asked to remove my scarf after being hired with it on, I was demoralized and felt unwanted,” said Khan, now represented by the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) and the Legal Aid Society–Employment Law Center (LAS-ELC). “Growing up in this country where the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of religion, I have felt let down.”

Khan went on to follow up with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC,) which later determined that Khan had been wrongfully terminated.

“When we first received Ms. Khan’s complaint, it was the explicitness of Abercrombie & Fitch’s discriminatory demands which concerned us. They were both egregious and illegal,” said CAIR-SFBA executive director Zahra Billoo. “For an employer to, point-blank, require an employee to relinquish their religious practice is a violation of our cherished civil rights laws.”

The suit seeks to bring the company into compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, to ensure that future employees are not prevented from wearing their religious garb. (Jury convicts Blago on 17 counts)

In 2004, Abercrombie & Fitch reached a $50 million settlement with the EEOC over accusations the company discriminated against women and minorities.

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