DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Living in the West : Dress code issue in the job

**FEti0TUI** · 01-26-2010, 02:34 AM

Salaam,

It's true that "freedom of religion" has restrictions for Muslims in the U.S. However, you can find a few professional jobs that do not care about your attire, for example the U.S. Patent Office.

The reality is that most Westerner corporations are not open to diversity - they will not allow nor hire a brother wearing a turban/beard or a sister wearing hijab/niqab. In most cases, portraying your external (in their style) is more important for Western companies than the amount of knowledge you possess.

I used to work at Sears (a large department store chain), and, while they never said anything about me having a beard or folding up my pants, they constantly complained about me not tucking in my shirt. I got multiple warnings for doing so, so I finally just gave up and started tucking in my shirt (At this time I wasn't really aware of Islamic dress, so I didn't wear any sort of kufi/topi).

So, while they are not very lenient with men, they do generally allow women to wear Jilbab/Abaya (two women wore them at the store I worked at), although I do not know what they'd say about the Niqab.

Even then, they may have only been this lenient because the store I wroked at had many Muslims working in it (counting those that didn't practice, more than twenty), and so they were familiar with our practices, even letting us pray in Jama`ah.

01-26-2010, 02:34 AM	#14
FEti0TUI Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 394 Senior Member	Salaam, It's true that "freedom of religion" has restrictions for Muslims in the U.S. However, you can find a few professional jobs that do not care about your attire, for example the U.S. Patent Office. The reality is that most Westerner corporations are not open to diversity - they will not allow nor hire a brother wearing a turban/beard or a sister wearing hijab/niqab. In most cases, portraying your external (in their style) is more important for Western companies than the amount of knowledge you possess. I used to work at Sears (a large department store chain), and, while they never said anything about me having a beard or folding up my pants, they constantly complained about me not tucking in my shirt. I got multiple warnings for doing so, so I finally just gave up and started tucking in my shirt (At this time I wasn't really aware of Islamic dress, so I didn't wear any sort of kufi/topi). So, while they are not very lenient with men, they do generally allow women to wear Jilbab/Abaya (two women wore them at the store I worked at), although I do not know what they'd say about the Niqab. Even then, they may have only been this lenient because the store I wroked at had many Muslims working in it (counting those that didn't practice, more than twenty), and so they were familiar with our practices, even letting us pray in Jama`ah.
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