European court backs French woman sacked for wearing hijab | World news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/european-court-backs-french-women-sacked-hijab-asma-bougnaoui
A French design engineer who was dismissed for wearing an Islamic headscarf should have been allowed to cover her head at work, the European Union’s highest court has recommended.
In an influential preliminary opinion, an advocate general at the European court of justice has found in favour of Asma Bougnaoui, a Muslim woman, who lost her job with Micropole SA, a French IT consultancy, in June 2009.
Advocate Eleanor Sharpston, one of the senior British members of the judiciary on the Luxembourg court, said an EU directive prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief should be interpreted strictly and that Bougnaoui’s dismissal amounted to direct discrimination on those grounds.
There was nothing to suggest that Bougnaoui was unable to perform her duties as a design engineer because she wore an Islamic headscarf, the opinion noted. Indeed, Micropole’s letter terminating her employment had expressly referred to her professional competence. No exemptions from the directive applied.