RADIANCE VIEWSWEEKLY: A German court has ruled against a dentist who refused to employ a veiled Muslim woman because she had declined to remove her headscarf, blaming him for breaching the Equal Treatment Act. “The dentist broke the law because he refused the plaintiff the position only because she didn’t want to take off her headscarf,” the spokesman for the Berlin Industrial Tribunal said, reports said on October 20. Applying for an assistant job in his dental practices, the woman was asked by the dentist to remove the veil to get the job. Condemning the move as against non-discrimination laws, the woman took the issue to the court.
At the hearing, the dentist acknowledged the woman was qualified for the position but argued his refusal to employ her stemmed from the right to religious neutrality. The court ordered the dentist to pay 1,500 euros ($1,966) in damages to the young Muslim woman.
The Tagesspiegel newspaper said the decision was the first, and that the court insisted the headscarf was not optional but an expression of religious belief, which was unaffected by the fact some Muslims chose not to wear it. » | Saturday, November 03, 2012
