Muslim garb a liability in job market, study finds

Women wearing traditional head scarves turned away by prospective employers

By GRAEME SMITH
Wednesday, December 18, 2002 - Globe and Mail

Employers in Canada's most diverse city often reject women wearing Muslim head scarves in favour of identical candidates who don't, according to an undercover study of hiring practices released yesterday.

Researchers chose three pairs of fake job applicants to visit 16 factories, fast-food outlets, and retail stores in Toronto. They selected pairs of women who seemed virtually the same: Their résumés, ages, races, accents, countries of birth and experience in Canada were nearly identical.

In many circumstances, the woman wearing a head covering fared worse than her twin. At 12.5 per cent of the sites, the visibly Muslim woman was told that no job was available, while the woman without a scarf was told the opposite. About a quarter of the employers didn't give the visibly Muslim
woman a chance to apply for the job but accepted an application from the other woman.

More troublesome than the bare statistics are the stories of women whose aspirations are crushed, said Judy Vashti Persad, who worked on the research for a community group called Women Working with Immigrant Women.

"It really affects the self-esteem and confidence of these women," Ms. Persad said.

One woman wearing a head scarf walked into a clothing factory, Ms. Persad said, and a supervisor told her there were no jobs available. The woman said she'd seen a sign outside advertising vacant positions, but the supervisor repeated the rejection and told her she could not leave her résumé or fill out an application form.

When a similar candidate without the scarf walked into the same factory, Ms. Persad said, she was told there were job openings, her résumé was accepted, and she was told to expect a call for an interview.

The 69-page study, funded by the municipal and federal governments, uses a quote from an employer as its title: "No Hijab is Permitted Here." Hijab refers to the Muslim dress code for women.

Besides the undercover job applications, the study also uses material from focus groups, a small survey, and consultations with service agencies.

Identities of both employers and participants were kept confidential for legal reasons, but the study quotes many anonymous women about job hunting.

A computer programmer described her conversation with an interviewer: "He told me he would be frank and tell me something nobody else will: that unless I changed the way I dress, I will never be hired for this job or a similar one in another company."

Taking off the scarf for the sake of expediency is a serious affront to the beliefs of some Muslims, said Safia Shire, employment program coordinator for Culturelink, a not-for-profit agency in Toronto.

"It is something personal that needs to be respected," she said. But Ms. Shire, who wears a moderate scarf that leaves her whole face exposed, said she understands the pressure that some women feel to accommodate the growing racism around them.

"Lately, things are really different," Ms. Shire said. "I see people staring at me. It's really very hard."

The Ontario Human Rights Code instructs employers to accommodate religious observances where reasonably possible. But Ms. Shire says many employers are willing to risk breaking the rules rather than take a chance that their customers will react badly.

"Things are not getting easier for Muslims in this country," Nina Karachi-Khaled of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women said.
 

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