Adalah to Employment Office: Conditioning Acceptance of Arab Women to Work on Removing the Islamic Veil is Discriminatory and Illegal
On 18 March 2008, Adalah sent a letter to the general director of an employment office, the Supervisor of the Unit for the Implementation of the Employment Law within the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Labor and the Attorney General, following media reports that employers had refused the job applications of Arab women because they wear the Islamic veil and the jilbab (a long, loose outer garment). According to the media reports, the employment office sent the women to job interviews in a hotel at the Dead Sea. All of the women stated that the interviewers had asked them to remove their veils and jilbab and to put on trousers and non-religious clothes as a condition for work. The women who refused to remove their religious clothing did not gain employment and furthermore the employment office stripped them of their unemployment benefits for three months.
In the letter, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher argued that the problem of discrimination against religious Arab women in employment opportunities has become widespread. She emphasized that most of these women are prevented from undertaking any form of protest or any legal steps by the fear that their unemployment benefits will be cut off, for example, or that the authorities will infringe their rights in one form or another. It should be noted that a significant number of the women who approached Adalah were unwilling for the letter to be sent in their names owing to such fears.
As Adalah argued, refusing the job applications of Arab women because of their religious clothing is a violation of their dignity and of their freedom of choice to lead their lives as they please. “Not accepting Arab women who wear the veil to employment positions constitutes a dangerous violation of freedom of religion and freedom of expression.”
Adalah emphasized that wearing the veil has no relation to the nature of the positions these women were applying for, and therefore conditioning job offers on the removal of the veil discriminates against them on the basis of religion, sex and nationality, and is in breach of the Equal Opportunities in Employment Law – 1988. Refusing the job applications of Arab women because of their clothing further violates their right to work in workplaces that are suited to their skills, as well as damages their social security.
In the letter, Adalah demanded that discrimination against religious Arab women in employment opportunities cease, and that the Equal Opportunities in Employment Law – 1988 be properly applied, in particular those articles that deal with the prevention of discrimination on the basis of a person’s sex or religious or national background.