A fast food restaurant chain’s alleged inaction over a teen’s reports of harassment and religious discrimination landed them with a federal lawsuit for violations of the Civil Rights Act.
More than two years after then-19-year-old Areej Saifan’s unaddressed complaints of workplace discrimination led her to quit working for Chipotle in Lenexa, Kansas, the national chain was slapped with a lawsuit from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Wednesday.
Beginning in July 2021, the young Muslim woman had alleged that over the course of a month, her then-assistant manager had requested she remove her hijab “approximately 10 to 15 times” so that he could see her hair, KSHB reported on the lawsuit. Despite complaints to another supervisor, the lawsuit alleged on Aug. 9, 2021, the assistant manager “grabbed her hijab, and yanked” it, leaving her feeling “exposed.”
After filing her initial complaint in 2021, she told KCTV5, “I felt like I was exposed — humiliated — I felt like, why would someone do this to me.”
The following day, she submitted her two weeks notice.
According to the suit, the assistant manager’s “offensive and incessant requests that Saifan remove her hijab and expose her hair were unwelcome, intentional, severe, based on religion, and created a hostile working environment based on religion.”
Additionally, the lawsuit alleged retaliation on the part of Chipotle as it was contended that she was refused shifts after submitting her notice unless she agreed to transfer to a different location despite that standard having supposedly not been applied to others.
“Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination — including harassment — because of a person’s religion,” the EEOC explained in a statement. “The law also prohibits retaliation against employees who complain about discriminatory treatment.”
Commenting on the case, EEOC attorney Andrea G. Baran of the St. Louis District Office said, “People of faith have a right to work free from harassment based on their religious beliefs and practices. Harassment of women and teen girls who choose to express their religious beliefs by wearing modest clothing or head coverings is never acceptable.”
David Davis, the director of the St. Louis office added, “Individuals should not have to choose between their sincerely held religious beliefs and their jobs. Federal law protects the rights of all workers to observe their religious practices free from harassment and retaliation.”
Further, Moussa Elbayoumy, the board chair of the Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations stated, “We welcome the filing of this lawsuit by the EEOC. What this employee was subjected to is egregious, and the fact that her company essentially did nothing to protect her from assault and harassment must be addressed through the appropriate legal channels.”
Meanwhile, following an attempted pre-litigation settlement, the suit seeks monetary compensation for Saifan and other relief in addition to an order prohibiting any future religious discrimination.
Chipotle indicated that the assistant manager had been fired and the chain’s chief corporate affairs officer Laurie Schalow said in a statement to The Associated Press, “We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind and we have terminated the employee in question.”
“Chipotle’s engaged and hard-working employees are what makes us great, and we encourage our employees to contact us immediately, including through an anonymous 800 number, with any concerns so we can investigate and respond quickly to make things right,” she added.
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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