Freedom Means Being Able to Wear the Veil, Too

In October, in a blatant act of discrimination, a Muslim woman wearing a veil in an Oklahoma bank was reportedly told she had to be escorted from the door to the teller. The Valley National Bank in Tulsa stated that this was not an act of religious discrimination, but rather part of their “no hat, no hood” policy instituted to allow security to clearly identify and take surveillance pictures of customers.

But as Executive Director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Adam Soltani said, “singling out Muslim women or other people of faith who wear religiously mandated head coverings that do not hinder identification is inappropriate and discriminatory.”

According to the Pew Research Center, 43 percent of the roughly 1 million Muslim women in America wear headscarves. That’s a significant number of women in this country who face potential difficulties based on their decision to practice their faith the way they see fit…

Click here to read the rest of the article, published by CNN on December 5, 2012.
 
Sahar Aziz is a fellow at ISPU and an associate professor of Texas Wesleyan School of Law. She serves as the president of the Egyptian American Rule of Law Association.

ISPU scholars are provided a space on our site to display a selection of op-eds. These were not necessarily commissioned by ISPU, nor is their presence on the site equal to an endorsement of the content. The opinions expressed are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ISPU.