**“If our female Muslim staff wants to wear hijab we will ask them to wear our uniform headscarves, bearing our logo on it.” **
An encouraging article from the Turkish press on a new development at IKEA stores in the UK, soon to be rolled out to other IKEA stores in the world. It’s good to see corporations actively adapting to dealing with Muslim employees.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&hn=23469
Swedish Furnishing Chain IKEA commissioned a special headscarf for its female Muslim staff. The firm indicated that the increasing number of Muslim staff lead them to design a headscarf with an IKEA logo on it, to enable female Muslim employees to wear the hijab in their workplace.
The headscarves were first been introduced at Ikea’s London stores. IKEA named the headscarf “IKEA-HIJAB” and they will soon come into use in IKEA stores in other countries as well.
IKEA Information Chief Camilla Lindemann, noting IKEA’s female Muslim staff were free to wear hijap at work, said they consulted with their employees about the newly commissioned headscarves. The presence of female Muslim employees lead them to this decision, she stressed. The decision will enable Muslim women to seek employment more easily, she added. Last Friday, Turkish daily, Hurriyet had cited the firm’s managers saying: “In many European countries hijab becomes a problem in employing Muslim women. Many lawsuits have been filed for this reason. As our staff dresses uniformly, we commissioned the headscarves with the IKEA logo on them for our female Muslim staff. We thereby found a solution to the hijab problem. If our female Muslim staff wants to wear hijab we will ask them to wear our uniform headscarves, bearing our logo on it. This way we will no more be legally responsible. As a matter of fact, there are many employees of foreign origin working in our stores. Our firm is against discrimination.”
In Scandinavian countries, Sweden, Norway and Denmark the hijab does not constitute a problem either in the public sector or in the private sector. Last year, A Furnishing Store in Oslo, Norway fired Muslim worker Ambreen Pervez for wearing the hijab. The firm was forced to step down and reemploy Pervez as a result of the ensuing public pressure. Another similar event had taken place in Denmark. Magasin clothing store was order to pay damages to Amin Bakhtiyar who was not accepted as a trainee because she wore hijab. There are no restrictions on wearing hijab in the public sector. Wearing hijab is free to be worn by Muslim students from primary school through to university. In Denmark nurses wear specially designed headscarves and the state railways is working to introduce a special uniform to accommodate its Muslim employees.