Zara Fires Employee That Would’t Let a Woman Wearing a Hijab Enter Their Store
This is not a Zara store in Paris, but the entire company should be concerned about what happened at one store in the city. Photo: Getty
In the wake of the terrorist attacks this weekend, it seems anti-Islam sentiment is rearing its ugly head in the west, to the detriment of many innocent Muslim people who are just trying to do normal things like get their eyebrows done or pick up some new threads.
One hijab-wearing woman in Paris got a taste of the ugly attitude when she was denied entry into a Zara store. The incident was caught on tape and uploaded to the internet the day after the attacks – the actual date the video was shot is unclear. The clip shows that the security officer standing outside the Zara store tried to keep the woman from entering, claiming that people wearing hats, hoodies, and the like were not allowed to enter the store, which is weird, considering Zara definitely sells hats. The woman asked the security guard if it was company policy to disallow head coverings of all stripes in-store. “If things change, they’ll change but I don’t make the rules,” he replied.
The video went viral and sparked a lot of ire from people on the internet who felt the security guard was acting in a prejudicial manner, with the hashtag #BoycottZara trending on Twitter.
“We are also suffering from terrorism for many years! Instead of being against Islam work with us to face these terrorists!!” one person tweeted. “Shame, used to really like Zara (so did a lot of Arabs who I’m sure make a big portion of your market)” another said. “#BoycottZARA Since no one should be stopped from entering merely because they wear a hijab. Stop the discrimination and stop Islamophobia,” someone else tweeted.
According to Dazed, Zara has since come forward in the wake of the backlash to assure the public that they harbor no Islamophobic sentiments and to distance themselves from the rogue employee. “We would like to sincerely apologise for what has happened. Our Country Head in France has personally contacted this customer to apologise for the incident and to express our utter disagreement with such actions, which are completely opposite to the principles of our Company,” they said. “Both the security staff and the store manager have been sanctioned. Once again, we are deeply sorry about this.”
“Zara is a diverse and multicultural company that has employees and customers of many different nationalities, orientations, cultures, languages and beliefs,” the retailer explained on its Facebook page. “We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.”
We’re not sure if the apology will change the mind of the public determined to keep their coins away from a company they believe promotes fear and bigotry. Granted, we understand that the people of Paris are on edge since the attacks happened, but it does seem unfair to treat an entire population of people as if they mean to do you harm, when only a small fraction of that very large group of people are actually bad – and the majority of the people do not support the destructive and barbaric actions of the few.
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