He neutrality law in eight German states indicates a structural bias against hijab-wearing women.
Under the law, the hijab is banned in schools and some public institutions,
Even the most educated Muslim’s women living in Germany have found it difficult to find employment; many claim it’s because they wear the hijab.
The neutrality law in eight German states indicates a structural bias against hijab-wearing women. Under the law, the hijab is banned in schools and some public institutions, and the structural discrimination scuttles their efforts to find suitable jobs.
Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany’s doors in 2015 to around a million asylum-seekers, most of them Syrian Muslims. But, in the run-up to federal elections in 2017, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, the country’s largest center-right party, indicated its opposition to full-face Islamic veils. “We are not burqa,” said then-Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, in an appeal to the country’s culturally conservative majority. Merkel backed her minister’s comments and supported a ban “wherever legally possible according to foreignpolicy.
This threatens to undermine Merkel’s open-door policy. TRT World has released a report showing a Muslim’s woman life in Germany that Wearing a headscarf lowers her chances of getting a job.
Amal is a trained dentist from Syria. She speaks English, Arabic and has learned advanced German to perform her job efficiently. But she has been struggling to get an internship, a prerequisite for her to be employed as a dentist. Despite being invited for several interviews on the basis of her qualifications, she said, she has been denied a shot at an internship too many times.
“I think the real reason I am denied is that once they see me in a hijab, they get uncomfortable,” she said. “One of them even asked me if I would be ready to take it off. Of course, I refused. I think as a result I was refused a place.”
Amal cannot prove she is being discriminated against and said that the employers can easily counter her assertions by finding faults in her qualifications. She does, however, feel it strongly.
In her two-room apartment, Amal lives with her daughter and husband. At the moment the family is surviving on Germany’s largess. The rent of the house, about 500 euros, is paid by the German state and the family gets the same amount as a stipend for monthly expenses. But Amal insisted that she wants to be financially independent and not a burden.
Source:en.shafaqna.com
