A former Muslim employee of Abercrombie & Fitch has won her anti-discrimination lawsuit against the clothing retailer who reportedly fired her for wearing a hijab, stating it violated the company's dress code.
ABC News reports Hani Khan worked in the stockroom in a Hollister store in San Mateo, Calif. The store manager fired her when she refused to remove her headscarf after working for the company for four months in 2010.
"She expressed concern about my hijab," Khan told ABC News. "That's when I felt like it was not appropriate, what they were saying."
The hijab reportedly violated the company's "Look Policy," siting how employees should present themselves when on the job.
Khan told ABC News she hopes the ruling will force the company to change its policies.
"I really hope that they look into their policies and practices, and they're able to reflect some changes," Khan said.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said the company violated anti-discrimination laws when they fired Khan, according to the Associated press. The company claimed Khan's look was negatively affecting their business, but provided no substantial evidence of their claim in court, ABC News reports.
"Abercrombie failed to offer any evidence from those four months showing a decline in sales," the judge wrote.
The company did not comment about the ruling, and the judge has yet to rule on the amount Abercrombie & Fitch will have to compensate to Khan.
"Abercrombie & Fitch does not discriminate based on religion and we grant religious accommodations when reasonable," spokesman Bruce MacKenzie told the Associated Press. "It is our policy not to comment on pending litigation."
The retailer's CEO Mike Jefferies is known for openly discriminating towards his customers, after a statement he made went viral on the Internet last May:
"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."
Hopefully the judge's ruling in favor of Khan will nix the company's discriminating ways, or they will land themselves in the center of another high profile lawsuit.
