A federal agency has sued the restaurant chain Chipotle, accusing it of religious harassment and retaliation after a manager at a Kansas location forcibly removed an employee’s hijab, a headscarf worn by some Muslim women.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that in 2021, an assistant manager at a Chipotle in Lenexa, Kansas, repeatedly harassed the employee by asking her to show him her hair, despite her refusal. After several weeks, the harassment culminated in him grabbing and partially removing her hijab, according to the complaint.
The manager’s “offensive and incessant requests” that she remove her hijab, and his attempt to physically take it off, were “unwelcome, intentional, severe, based on religion, and created a hostile working environment based on religion,” the complaint alleged.
I detest religion, but I absolutely believe it’s wrong to violate someone’s religious apparel. But you touched on what makes it even more vile. I knew there was something that made this feel worse and it’s that a man felt secure violating the space of a woman. He should be charged for two violations. Thanks for articulating what I felt but couldn’t quite find.