Pakistan: Karachi woman directed to shun Hijab at work or resign, sparks social media storm
Karachi, Oct 20 (IBNS): In perhaps one of the first of its kinds incident in Muslim-majority Pakistan, a woman employee of a Karachi City-based software company was asked to stop wearing hijab at her workplace or resign from her job.
The incident triggered an uproar on social media and even Chief Executive Officer Jawwad Kadir of the Creative Choas company had to resign from his post for the episode.
As per Pakistan's Dawn News, the incident came to light through a Facebook post which detailed how the female recruit, just a few days into her employment with Creative Chaos, was told by her line manager that she could keep her job only if she would take off her hijab.
The said person told Dawn.com that the implication was that her wearing the hijab would spoil the company’s image as an "all-embracing" workplace.
According to the newspaper report, the discriminatory policy was reportedly defended in a meeting of the affected employee with the company's CEO, Jawwad Kadir, who, the woman claims, refused to make the demand in writing but pushed her to resign, even recommending her two Islamic banks as possible alternatives.
The woman was directed by the company not to consider any legal options.
Kadir issued an apology later after the entire episode created an uproar on the social media.
"Yesterday, a senior member of our staff asked a colleague to resign on unprofessional and unethical grounds," said Kadir in a statement.
"She was told that her obligations may come in the way of her performance," he said.
"Not only is this action disgraceful but shows extremely poor moral judgement by her hiring manager... I take full responsibility for this failure and am deeply ashamed that a colleague was put through distress and trauma," he said.
In a Facebook post, the company said the CEO has been directed to step down.
"CEO of Creative Chaos Software Services asked to step down for workplace discrimination," read the post.
In an email sent to board members and associates, titled "My apology is not enough", Kadir said he was resigning as CEO of the software house, reported Dawn News.
"I have crossed a line which I deeply regret," Kadir wrote in the email, a copy of which was provided to Dawn.com by a source.
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