Muslim Women Overlooked For Employment Due To Islamic Dress

The Commons Women and Equalities Committee has conducted a review of UK employment statistics and found that many Muslim women who wear head scarves regularly get overlooked for jobs and also see their opportunities diminish in the workplace due to assumptions about their lifestyle.

MPs claim employers view their behaviour as an “acceptable form of discrimination”, and that many highly skilled women are unfairly regarded as being somehow submissive or weak due to stereotypes of Muslim women. The committee made its enquiry with the assistance of race relation experts and involved discussions with Muslim students.

The review found that in a bid to improve workplace success, some women are resorting to no longer wearing Islamic attire traditional of their religion. Other women have reported instances of feeling pressured into revealing details of their personal life, such as their marital status and whether they have children. This is the result of stereotypes of Muslim women being subordinate to their husbands and expected to focus on their families before work.

Another discriminatory area flagged up by the review is that Muslim women in employment are often denied work assignments that involve travelling as this requires a level of independence that their culture is wrongly believed to not “allow”. The chair of the committee, Maria Miller, said the findings of the review reflect how it is “seen as acceptable to discriminate against Muslim women” and that “you can’t have some women more equal than others”.

Previous efforts to confront job application discrimination against minorities saw the suggestion of ‘name blind’ applications which do not reveal applicant identity in the hope it will prevent assumptions being attached to the name of a candidate.

The review also highlights wider employment issues affecting British Muslims, including how unemployment for Muslims is at a rate more than double that of other UK workers. These results are seen by MPs as a reflection of a long perceived sense of division between the UK Muslim community and society in general, which is in part due to fear of the potential radicalisation of British Muslims that has “exacerbated” the inequality experienced and thus increased tensions.

The committee is expected to open a fuller dialogue on the experiences of Islamic women. Miller explains “There is a distinct level of institutional racism that is being endured by Muslim women and we must be open about that.”