Imane Boudlal was reportedly told that as a Disneyland hostess she could not wear her Muslim headscarf. Photo: Jae C. Hong, AP
So much for being "the happiest place on earth."
A Muslim Disneyland employee is suing the company after alleging that her supervisors told her that her religious headscarf was not part of "the Disney Look," the AFP reports.
Imane Boudlal, a 26-year-old hostess at the Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim, CA, claims she asked her bosses for permission to wear the headscarf (known as a hijab) several months ago, the news agency reports.
After allegedly getting no response, Boudlal opted to wear the hijab to coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a worker's union spokesperson told the AFP.
"Disney told Boudlal that if she wanted to work as a hostess she had to remove her hijab because it did not comply with the 'Disney Look,'" Leigh Shelton of the UNITE HERE union said in a statement.
"Disney further advised Boudlal that if she refused to remove her hijab, she could either work a back-of-the-house position where any customers would not see her, or else go home."
Instead, Boudlal filed a discrimination complaint with the US Equal Opportunity Commission.
"Their offer to put me in the back is humiliating," Boudlal said in a statement.
"They're saying because I'm Arab, because I'm Moroccan, because I'm Muslim, they don't want to see me in the front."
Meanwhile, the local Council on American-Islamic Relations reportedly called Disney's stance "deeply offensive."
Disney denies any wrongdoing, according to a report from the Daily Mail.
"Typically, somebody in an on-stage position like hers wouldn't wear something like that, that's not part of the costume," spokeswoman Suzi Brown told the paper.
"We were trying to accommodate her with a backstage position that would allow her to work.
"We gave her a couple of different options and she chose not to take those and to go home."
What do you think? Does Disney have a right to dictate what employees wear? Or is this discrimination? Leave a comment!
In related news, read about Disney's new "relaxed" dress code for employees.
