Should Disneyland's Dress Code Cater to Religious Beliefs?

Submitted Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - 15:04 by admin

Disneyland is being sued by a Muslim employee who is upset she is not allowed to wear her head covering, a hijab, while working. The employee, Imane Boudlal, had previously been employed by Disneyland for 2 years and in those 2 years did not once wear a hijab. Boudlal was working on her citizenship and once earning it decided it was important to her to wear the head covering. Disneyland authorities offered a number of temporary solutions that would not conflict with the park’s dress code policies while they worked on a permanent solution for Imane Boudlal.

Disneyland is known for its strict dress code standards. Male employees were not allowed to have mustaches until 2000! They also do not allow visible tattoos, unnatural hair colors, long finger nails, polished nails that are not neutral in color and men aren’t allowed to sport ear piercings while on the clock.

Disneyland offered to allow Boudlal to wear her hijab and work in the back offices of the hotel she worked in out of public view until an agreement could be reached. While this might sound bad, Boudlal signed a contract when she started working for Disneyland that she would abide by their rules and dress code standards. If Boudlal had made this request upon employment Disney stated that she would have been placed somewhere where the dress code would have allowed for it. Boudlal instead chose to continue wearing her hijab to work not taking the offer to work elsewhere and was sent home.

Do you think that Imane Boudlal is right or wrong to sue Disneyland? Is Disneyland right or wrong to enforce its dress code despite religious restrictions? Comment below with your thoughts.

Comments

Submitted Monday, March 28, 2011 - 12:48 By Falcon

Disney Corporation could mandate that all employees be sterilised as far as I'm
concerned. They'd have very few employees but that's their business. Hijab on, hijab off,
smoking banned, smoking required -- what the boss says, goes. That simple.

Submitted Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - 13:08 By Noel S Jytemotiv

Nice.

This woman, like many others is simply hungry for attention.

She
wishes to shun the American tradition of women leaving the house uncovered yet seems to no
difficulty adopting the often greedy American tradition known as the
tort.

Pathetic.

Remember kids, "When in Rome..."

Submitted Monday, September 20, 2010 - 01:59 By Novel

The dress code standard should benefit the corporate entity as a whole, not the
ideology of any group within. If the standard discriminates to the effect that it no
longer benefits the corp., it produces tension and internal [ideological] divisions
within, which is detrimental to the entity as a whole.

Disneyland should remain
political neutral in its R&D and Application of the dress code. The fact that they do
not allow visible tattoos, unnatural hair colors, long finger nails, polished nails that
are not neutral in color and men aren’t allowed to sport ear piercings while on the
clock is evidence that the code does not discriminate (e.g. the code forbids all tattoos
-including tattoo's of Jesus, Buddha, etc). If Disneyland makes a special exception for
the hibab, it would serve only to compromise the political neutrality of the dress code
for the sake of one group, which would be a disservice to the entity as a whole.

Login or register to post comments.