Ex-Disney employee files discrimination lawsuit
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ANAHEIM – A former Disney employee filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing Disney of discrimination based on her religion.
In her suit, Imane Boudlal claims Disney refused to let her wear her religious headscarf – or hijab – in view of customers when she worked as a restaurant hostess at the Storytellers' Cafe in the Grand Californian Hotel in Downtown Disney.
PAUL RODRIGUEZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The wearing of the hijab is a sign of modesty for Muslim women.
Boudlal, 28, began working at the Storytellers' Café in 2008. She decided to wear the hijab at work in 2010.
She claims supervisors told her the headscarf violated Disney's employee dress code and gave her the options of either being able to wear the covering in the back out of the view of customers, or to wear a hat on top of the hijab.
When she refused either option, Boudlal claims she was removed from the work schedule and did not receive any hours after Aug. 15, 2010.
Boudlal's suit also claims she was harassed by co-workers, who used racial slurs toward her, despite continued complaints to her supervisors.
Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on Boudlal's behalf. Anne Richardson, an attorney with Hadsell Stormer Richardson & Renick - also representing Boudlal - said her client was asking for a policy change that would allow Muslim women to wear hijabs at work, sensitivity training and unspecified compensatory damages.
"That's very important to understand fully," Richardson said. "She was working as hostess in a restaurant. She wasn't asked to dress like Snow White. She was wearing khaki pants and a vest."
Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said the company attempted to work with Boudlal.
"Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has a history of accommodating religious requests from cast members of all faiths," Brown said in a statement. "We presented Ms. Boudlal with multiple options to accommodate her religious beliefs, as well as offered her several roles that would have allowed her to wear her own hijab.
"Unfortunately, she rejected all of our efforts and has since refused to come to work."
Contact the writer: or efields@ocregister.com
FAITH
MUSLIM WOMAN SUES DISNEY FOR NOT ALLOWING HER TO WEAR HER HIJAB TO WORK
Imane Boudlal, a former hostess at a Disney-owned restaurant is suing the company, claiming that she was not allowed to wear her Islamic headscarf while at work. According to her lawsuit, which was filed on Monday, Boudlal says that when she showed up wearing her hijab, she was told to take it off. If she chose not to do so, her other options were to stay out of customers’ sights or — to go home.
According to The Daily Mail, the issue took form in 2010 when the woman was working at Storyteller Café inside Disney’s Grand California Hotel. She had learned while taking her U.S. citizenship exam that it is permissible for her to wear a head scarf to work and, thus, she decided to start doing so. While she hadn’t yet enjoyed this supposed right during her first two years working at the restaurant, she subsequently began wearing it to work.
It was then that Boudlal’s clash with Disney began, as she was reportedly sent home numerous times without pay when she showed up wearing the headscarf. The situation intensified when she refused to wear a bow-tie bonnet and a hat that was offered to her as a cover-up by her bosses; she also declined the option to work “back stage” and out of sight. At that point, she was suspended.
The Los Angeles Times has a more robust timeline of the events at hand:
The lawsuit charges that Boudlal, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, decided to wear her hijab full time in 2010, about eight months after she began wearing it publicly. She contacted her supervisors at Disneyland to request an exemption to the company’s “look” policy — general appearance guidelines that, according to a Disney website, touch on items ranging from contact lens color and visible tattoos to personal hygiene.After weeks of discussions with company officials, the lawsuit says, Boudlal received initial approval to wear a Disney-designed scarf, but she was told it would need corporate approval before she could wear it to work. Not wanting to wait to mark Ramadan, Boudlal wore her own hijab to work Aug. 15, 2010, when she says she was told she could either remove the scarf, cover it with a hat or work in a job out of public sight.
Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown claims that the company did try to offer options to Boudlal and that they were all flatly rejected.
Imane Boudlal speaks during a news conference at the ACLU in Los Angeles on Monday, Aug. 13, 2012. Boudlal, a former Disneyland employee who says she was forbidden to wear a Muslim head scarf at work, plans to sue the Walt Disney Co. for discrimination. (Photo Credit: AP)
“We presented Ms. Boudlal with multiple options to accommodate her religious beliefs, as well as offered her several roles that would have allowed her to wear her own hijab,” Brown explained. “Unfortunately, she rejected all of our efforts and has since refused to come to work.”
In addition to the headscarf issue, the woman reports being harassed by co-workers and, as a result, complaining to superiors — but to no avail. Managers, she claims, simply ignored the oral and written slurs that co-workers were purportedly responsible for. Boudlal was allegedly called “terrorist, “camel” and other disparaging names.
“It’s been hard,” Boudlal admitted in a response published by the Los Angeles Times. “I thought it was just a matter of complaining and a few days, and it wouldn’t affect my life, but it turns out … nothing has been done.”
It didn’t take long before Boudlal filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2010. Last week, two years after the incident originally unfolded, she received a notice of right to sue. Boudlal has been supported by her union, UNITE HERE Local 11, a group that has been battling Disneyland for years over an expired contract and is now being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Boudlal is seeking damages and harassment and discrimination training for Disney employees, the Times reports. Additionally, she’s asking that fellow Muslim Disney employees be able to wear their hijabs without restriction (you can read the full complaint here).
(H/T: Daily Mail)
California Politicians and Law Enforcement Support Sharia Law
Read more: http://godfatherpolitics.com/6590/california-politicians-and-law-enforcement-support-sharia-law/#ixzz23aYkBUEK
Earlier this year, a town hall meeting was held to determine the effects of Sharia law and to see whether or not it is something to be feared or embraced. In typical California fashion, the meeting was held on at a neutral location – the Islamic Society of Orange County.
To no one’s surprise, everyone at the meeting was told that Sharia law poses no threat to U.S. law. They were also told that there is absolutely no conflict between Sharia law and the U.S Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
As I’ve often said, California is the land of nuts, fruits and flakes and the results of the town hall meeting only helps to reinforce that notion. U.S. Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA) urged the people and officials to support and embrace Sharia law. Note, this is the same Maxine Waters known for her outrageous statements and extreme liberalism. Waters’ district includes the Westchester are of Los Angeles along with Inglewood, Gardena, Florence-Graham and Hawthorne.
Another California politician that came out in support of Sharia Law was U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) whose district lies in central Orange County. Not only is Sanchez known as a flaming liberal who like other Dems votes for same-sex marriage and abortion, also is a ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee and Armed Services Committee. Her support of Sharia law should be alarming considering the important committees she serves on.
In addition to Waters and Sanchez, I was surprised to see Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Deputy Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department Michael Downing also come out and urge support of Sharia law. Radical Truth founder Joe Carey commented to OneNewsNow on something that Downing said at the town hall meeting:
“Michael Downing made this particular statement — he said, ‘The influence of natural laws described by Cicero are the foundational building blocks of Jewish law, Christian law, and sharia law or Islamic law. That is just outlandish. Sharia law does not recognize natural law and does not recognize human rights. These statements by our officials are just reprehensible, and they ought to be held to account for them.”
I have to agree with Carey on his assessment of what Downing said. Sharia law allows for women and girls to be treated as property and not as a person. It allows their father, husbands and brothers to beat them and even kill them if they do anything to possibly bring shame to the family. This flies in the face of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and everything America stands for.
Worse yet, Sharia law allows for the beatings and killings of anyone that says or does anything against Allah, Mohammed or the Quran. Anyone that converts from Islam to any other religion automatically is condemned to death under Sharia law.
Muslims are gaining more and more support for Sharia law among the liberal Democrats of our nation. These liberals only want to destroy the biblically based foundation that America was built upon so they can openly enjoy their lustful sins like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah did and like the citizens of ancient Rome. And look what happened to them. If America continues to embrace sexual depravity, lusts and biblically offensive ways of life including Sharia law, we will, without fail, suffer the same fate as Sodom, Gomorrah and Rome.
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