When Muslim college student Hani Khan was fired from her job at Hollister, human resources told her it wasn’t her; it was her headscarf. “The lady told me that my hijab was not in compliance with the ‘look policy’ and that they don’t wear any scarves or hats while working,” Khan told local news KTVU. “I told her it was for religious reasons and again she stated it was against their ‘look’ policy.’”
An employee at a Dubai mall. Khan herself has refused to be photographed, for safety reasons. Photo Credit: Getty Images
This flagrant incident of intolerance is keeping with the company’s track record. Hollister is owned by Abercrombie & Fitch, who were protested in 2002 for selling racist t-shirts that caricatured Asians and in 2004, had to settle a class action lawsuit from employees claiming that they were kept in the stock room because they weren’t white. And get this — in 2009, a British employee sued A&F when her prosthetic arm kept her off the sales floor, in the stock room.
I’m not surprised. A friend of mine, when hired to work at Hollister in downtown New York, chuckled at the company’s blatant racism when he was given the job of a “greeter” — a higher paid position than stock room — because he was tall, white, and athletic. His friends, the black women in the store, all worked in the back folding stock. This is the way this chain — and many other, less high profile stores — operate. And it doesn’t clique with Hollister’s aesthetic — beach bum cool, wealthy stoner chic, laid-back Americana.
19-year-old Khan, who has been wearing the scarf since kindergarten like millions of Muslim women, wore it when she was hired at the San Mateo Hillside mall. At that time, her manager told her it would be fine as long as she wore it with “company colors” — white, grey, or navy. Fine. That’s what she did. And she worked in the stock room. But when the district manager visited this month, she was told by human resources that if she continued to wear the hijab, she’d be fired. And she was finally fired on Monday.
“I’m really surprised and shocked, especially living in the Bay Area where everyone is so tolerant,” said Khan. “[There's] such a great diversity of people here that this would be such an issue now. It wasn’t an issue before so why bring it up now?”
And unlike hundreds of employees who endure intolerance, Khan is standing up. She gave an interview on local TV. And she is planning to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
And what’s she studying at school? She’s planning to become a lawyer. We need more like her.
A&F has irked us in the Asian American community before.
This is why it makes me so crazy when I see Asians wearing A&F clothes. Tell all your friends, people! We shouldn’t be shopping in this store! Ever!
