CujoSR
05-21-2004, 11:17 PM
From: Herald.com (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/8728080.htm?1c)Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. - Wearing a Muslim hijab, or head scarf, cost a Moroccan native both her jobs at Walt Disney World, the woman says in a lawsuit.
"To stop you from working for practicing your religion doesn't seem right to me," Aicha Baha said Friday, several days after her civil rights suit was served on the company. "There is a family here that is almost out on the street because of Disney."
Disney policy generally prohibits any headwear but Disney-issued hats and visors.
Disney spokeswoman Veronica Clemons said exceptions to the dress code for religious reasons are made on a case-by-case basis. "We do have cast members who have attire significant to their religions," she said.
Disney policy prohibits discussion of lawsuits, she told the Orlando Sentinel.
Baha, 32, worked at Walt Disney World from 1997 until mid-August 2002 and wore uniforms in her jobs as a part-time bellhop and a full-time sales clerk at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, according to interviews and the lawsuit she filed last week in federal court in Orlando.
She did not wear the hijab during that time, but started after she took maternity leave in 2002. She said her faith grew during that time, and she decided to wear the scarf.
"It wasn't something just for fun," she said. "It's like God is asking you to do it."
When she returned to her two jobs, she wore the scarf but her supervisors balked, she said.
Disney offered to accommodate her religious attire with a job out of the public view, the lawsuit states.
The Pearl Factory at the resort also let Baha continue wearing her scarf but transferred her from Disney property to a Disney-owned shop on U.S. 192, where dress codes didn't apply, she said.
She quit when her sales commissions fell from $400 to $700 a week to $40 a week at the new shop, and Disney fired her from the part-time post because she refused to remove the scarf, the suit says.
ORLANDO, Fla. - Wearing a Muslim hijab, or head scarf, cost a Moroccan native both her jobs at Walt Disney World, the woman says in a lawsuit.
"To stop you from working for practicing your religion doesn't seem right to me," Aicha Baha said Friday, several days after her civil rights suit was served on the company. "There is a family here that is almost out on the street because of Disney."
Disney policy generally prohibits any headwear but Disney-issued hats and visors.
Disney spokeswoman Veronica Clemons said exceptions to the dress code for religious reasons are made on a case-by-case basis. "We do have cast members who have attire significant to their religions," she said.
Disney policy prohibits discussion of lawsuits, she told the Orlando Sentinel.
Baha, 32, worked at Walt Disney World from 1997 until mid-August 2002 and wore uniforms in her jobs as a part-time bellhop and a full-time sales clerk at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, according to interviews and the lawsuit she filed last week in federal court in Orlando.
She did not wear the hijab during that time, but started after she took maternity leave in 2002. She said her faith grew during that time, and she decided to wear the scarf.
"It wasn't something just for fun," she said. "It's like God is asking you to do it."
When she returned to her two jobs, she wore the scarf but her supervisors balked, she said.
Disney offered to accommodate her religious attire with a job out of the public view, the lawsuit states.
The Pearl Factory at the resort also let Baha continue wearing her scarf but transferred her from Disney property to a Disney-owned shop on U.S. 192, where dress codes didn't apply, she said.
She quit when her sales commissions fell from $400 to $700 a week to $40 a week at the new shop, and Disney fired her from the part-time post because she refused to remove the scarf, the suit says.