Head-wrap dispute has happy ending

Head-wrap dispute has happy ending

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Muslim worker allowed to wear scarf at Dunkin' Donuts
 

By ROBIN BROWN / The News Journal
02/06/2005

When Renee Brown's supervisor told her she couldn't wear her Muslim head-wrap to work, the Wilmington resident wrestled with what to do. She mulled over the prospect of unemployment in a bad economy and her responsibilities to her 8-year-old son, Javour.

The next day, Brown reported for work at the Dunkin' Donuts shop on U.S. 13 near New Castle without her head-wrap.

She said she felt "personally uncomfortable," aching with a feeling that she was betraying her faith. As many Muslim women do, Brown wears the head-wrap or kimar, like the more elaborate scarf called a hijab, to honor Islam's tenet of personal modesty.

Nonetheless, she understood the doughnut shop management's point of view that all workers must wear the same uniform, including an official Dunkin' Donuts hat.

"It was a hard choice to make, but in the end, I had to take it off," she said last week. "That's my source of income, and I have to feed my family."

The 28-year-old single mother, who is studying for a high school diploma, said she turned for support to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C. Civil Rights Manager Khadija Athman said that office receives about one head-scarf complaint weekly, with more fielded by 31 chapters across the country and in Canada.

"The very same day, we intervened on her behalf," Athman said.

She said she faxed the Dunkin' Donuts owner about two weeks ago, explaining that civil rights laws require "reasonable accommodations of employees' religious beliefs."

At the same time, doughnut shop owner Sean O'Hanlon said, he was checking the issue of religious headgear with Dunkin' Donuts' corporate office.

"This was the first time we ever had to address this," he said. "I was just taking a couple of days to check the policy."

The response from the corporate office, saying the issue was up to him, came the same day as the fax from the council, he said.

O'Hanlon said he relayed to Brown that her scarf is no problem.

"It was the right thing to do," he said. "I'm glad it worked out. She's a great employee."

Brown said her supervisor called her before her next shift to say she can wear her required Dunkin' Donuts hat on top of her head scarf.

"Everybody was all around happy about it, no hard feelings at all," Brown said, adding that she is happy to keep working there.

And she saw what happened as an affirmation of her faith. "You've got to have your faith," she said. "That's what I depend on."

Her type of situation is reported regularly to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Athman said.

"It's a very typical situation, especially with a new Muslim or a person who has been a Muslim for a long time, who has decided recently to practice that aspect of her religion," she said.

Complaints to the council usually involve "ignorance of the law, more than anything else," she said. Most are resolved as Brown's was, without rancor or lawsuits, she added.

Contact robin brown at 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com 
 

Source: delawareonline.com