Paris: Bank, driving school reject women with headscarf

The following statement was received by Islamophobie.net from a woman who tried to enter a BNP bank branch and was refused on account of her headscarf. Together with the story below they sees it as a sign of Islamophobia in France.

The woman says that she came to the BNP branch at the Paris suburb of Fontenay-aux-Roses on Sept. 23rd, 2008 at 9:15am to perform operations in her bank account. She wore a scarf on her head which covered her hair but left her face visible. She entered the door by pressing the green button, and then pressed the button to open the second door in order to enter. Here, one of the employees told her via loudspeaker that for security reasons she must remove her veil to enter." She was stunned as usually she goes into the branch without problems and without any concern or remark. She therefore remained shocked and stuck in the doorway, a customer behind her waiting impatiently did not understand why she wasn't going in. She pressed the button again and the employee said to her that as already explained she must remove her veil in order to enter. She responded that she didn't agree, to which the employee answered that if she doesn't remove it, she won't enter.

The woman was therefore obliged to turn around and go back through the entrance door. She asked the customer who witnessed this to have the employee write down what she'd said (regarding the prohibition of entering with a veil or scarf) and she answered that it was written outside. The sign outside (see source link) doesn't mention removing a headscarf, but rather removing anything which covers the face and not the hair. She remained outside the bank, crying, feeling humiliated for being prohibited from entering the bank (like an animal) where she and her family have always been clients. She feels she's been discriminated and had also sent the bank a letter about it.

Source: Islamophobie (French)

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MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples) announced Wednesday they petitioned HALDE (High authority for fighting discrimination) on behalf of a young woman who was rejected by a driving school in Seine-Saint-Denis since she was wearing a veil.

Sabeh Kadi (20) wanted to sign up at the Cabriolet Roadster driving school in Les Pavillons-sous-Bois and was told that 'chadors' and 'scarves' were 'prohibited'. She was advised to find a different driving school. The French woman of North African origin, mother of three children, told AFP that she was 'shocked' and 'injured'.

The instructor she met told AFP that his school doesn't prevent people from signing up but warns applicants that all head coverings must be removed in the room and during driving lessons. Their rules do not distinguish between applicants, ensuring that everybody is equal, he added, invoking 'the Republic'. He explained that religion is not taken into account and that the driving school doesn't discriminate racially. He also added that head coverings might also interfere with hearing.

In the internal regulations displayed in the school office it says that one must dress correctly and appropriately and disqualifies the following head coverings: caps, turbans, scarves, hats.

According to MRAP, the conditions posed by the school constitute 'refusal of service due to religious discrimination' according to the penal code. The association says it will lodge a complaint with the Bobigny prosecutor in the near future.

Source: Le Parisien (French)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

They did the right thing. All women who wear headscarves behind the wheel should have their licenses revoked and should be charged with a count of attempted vehicular homicide for every individual on the road. They obstruct peripheral vision, so they're for all intents and purposes homicide bombers and their slave-owners' cars (since they can't work to own property) are bombs.

I can't wear sunglasses in my bank, and so nobody should wear anything that makes identification difficult.

Furthermore, wearing those disgusting things constitutes a hate crime and they should be imprisoned for it. You go to prison for wearing a far-less-offensive swastika, and likewise people should be imprisoned for wearing the Dark-Age Nazi explicit call for pervasive genocide. It also constitutes sedition and treason, since it indicates support for Sharia. For that they should be killed by the state like anyone else who is guilty of treason and sedition.

Iftikhar Ahmad said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Actually if your parents don't pay taxes and/or live on welfare you're not entitled to a damn thing, including oxygen, the use of the roads, or any schooling whatsoever. Pay to play or f the hell off.

FreeSpeech said...

Ever seen an ad for a cabriolet of the fifties? Women usually wear head-scarves.

However, if the company thinks they don't want to see that, this is up to them.

John Mullen said...

Islamophobia is very common in France, both on the right and on the left. Over a third of French people according to a recent poll consider that muslims "threaten French identity". The reason islamophobia is SO widepsread is that none of the Left orgaizations (with the partial exception of the MRAP) evr campaign against it. It is the acceptable racism of today. You are even thrown out of school for wearing a headscarf. Most younger women wearing headscarves are French citizens born here, but second class citizens. If you're a black or coloured man, you get your "identity checked" several times a week by police in the metro; if you're a headscarf wearing woman you get discrimiation. Change is needed!

Daphne said...

The reason women wearing the hijab are thrown out of school is because the French educational system is secular and no religious symbols are allowed. A Sikh would be thrown out for wearing a turban, a christan for wearing a cross and a jew for wearing a skull cap.
This is not discrimination but the law of the land. And a very good law it is. It should be introduced into every country. A school is a place to integrate children into society not to display differences through religious symbols.

Mark Tapson said...

Mr. Mullen, there is no such thing as Islamophobia, the "irrational fear of Islam." That is a trumped-up accusation designed by multiculturalism-brainwashed people like you on the left to silence any legitimate criticism of or concern about Islam, even a fundamentalist, politicized version of it.

Any fear of Muslims that exists among Westerners is a perfectly rational result of the Islamists' ongoing worldwide terrorism, encroaching sharia, unapologetically supremacist ideology, open resistance to assimiliation, and ongoing attempts create a separate, parallel culture in the West that will gradually overcome infidel civilization.

Pretending the threat doesn't exist, and dismissing concerns about it as Islamophobia, will solve nothing.

Unknown said...

'Islamophobia' is a tool of Islamists , their fellow travellers and their excusers to try - and it usually works - to deflect criticism of Islam's common practices around the world.

eg.

Person: 'Wow, the Taliban threw acid in the faces of young girls simply because they wanted to receive an education. That's disgusting, primitive and barbaric.'

Islamist: 'Islamophobe! Racist! Now I know how the Jews felt during the Holocaust (which, incidentally, never happened)!'

caligirl said...

wow..wow..i have always loved france i never know it was like this, in america treatment like that would not be tolerated, there is religious freedom no matter what. and btw jdamn13 and big shaker muslims happen to be victims of terrorism go google it..u two r just ignorant and racist. Im glad i live in a society where racists ideologies like that are that tolerated..and where there is equality for everyone a good example is...obama..boo yahh!

caligirl said...

i second john mullen

Mark Tapson said...

Caligirl, I know full well that Muslims are victims - in fact, they are the MOST numerous victims of Islamic terrorism. How does that invalidate what I said? What exactly did I write that you believe is racist and ignorant? By the way, casually throwing around charges of racism is exactly the point I was making about Islamophobia - that such name-calling is nothing more than an attempt to shut down legitimate criticism of Islamic terrorism. So please be specific.