A Muslim woman in India was denied a job in an orphanage because she wore the hijab.
Nedal Zoya came to Delhi from Patna in search of a job.
The 29-year-old was refused a job as a social worker at one of the orphanages in Delhi because she wore a hijab, The Indian Express reports.
The employer wrote in an email that her hijab “will make her look like a Muslim from even a distance of a kilometre.”
After Zoya sent her application for the vacancy at “Orphanage for Girls” in Kotla Mubarakpur, she was asked to appear for an online test, as well as send photographs of herself.
Later, she received the email stating that the institution is “religion-free”.
The email which was signed by Harish Verma, the President and CEO of Delhi Orphanage, stated: “I am sorry to inform that from even a distance of one kilometre you look like a Muslim lady due to your external Muslim gears.”
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She replied saying that she is a Muslim woman who covers her head and that it was the “priority” for her.
In a reply to her email, Mr Verma said that he was “shocked” to know that “conservative Islam” was Zoya’s priority, “not humanity” and that her “higher education has gone down the drain”.
Zoya feels that the growing rise of Islamophobia in India needs to be tackled.
She told The Indian Express: “I believe that Islamophobia can be significantly reduced if not totally eradicated if the parents, guardians and families shape their children’s idea about religion, peace, love and harmony in a way that they are not influenced by what they see or hear but rather by their own logical reasoning and non-judgemental approach.”
