Religious freedom in the workplace...including Abercrombie & Fitch

There is a lawsuit pending in
Oklahoma against the
Abercromibe & Fitch because it is possible that the company denied
employment to a 19 year old muslim woman who, consistent with her observance of
Islam, wears a hijab, or headscarf. You can read all of the details of the case
in this Time article.

The Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), who is representing the 19 year old, asserts that if the
store did in fact refuse employment to this woman on the basis of her observance
of Islam, that their action is tantamount to discrimination, under
“Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits religious discrimination. "’It shall
be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire
.... any individual ... because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex
or national origin,’ the law states.”

The Time article also reports that,
“The key language, says Stewart Schwab, an employment lawyer and dean of
Cornell
Law School, is found in a 1972
amendment to Title VII. This amendment
defined "religion." It reads, "The term 'religion' includes all aspects of
religious observance and practice, as well as belief, unless an employer
demonstrates that he is unable to reasonably accommodate an employee's or
prospective employee's religious observance or practice without undue hardship
on the conduct of the employer's business."

In a position statement, Abercrombie
& Fitch told the EEOC that "under the Look Policy, associates must wear
clothing that is consistent with the Abercrombie brand, cannot wear hats or
other coverings, and cannot wear clothes that are the color
black."

While Abercrombie says employees
“cannot wear hats or other coverings”…a hijab is not a hat or a covering. It is
an outward form of religious observance and practice. As the Deputy Director of
the ACLU of Oklahoma, Chuck Thornton, says in this article: “If these
allegations are true, they are serious. In this day and age, it’s not
acceptable. Certainly, a headscarf is part and parcel of the Islamic
experience.”

Learn more about the ACLU's works on behalf of religious freedom here.