The Duty-Free shop at Beirut airport reportedly refused to hire Dina al-Durr last Friday, because, “the company does not employ veiled women,” al-Durr said in a FB post, quoting the head of recruitment.
The company reportedly told her that the majority of its owners are foreigners who stipulate that veiled women should not be employed in it. This prompted Dina to respond in a Facebook post, “the hijab covers my head, it doesn’t cover my brain or abilities.”
Newly Elected MP Halimeh Kaakour denounced these increasing measures, which “contradict our right as women to choose our clothes and our religious symbols.”
Kaakour linked discrimination against women to the current economic crisis, noting that new policies must be developed to integrate women into the economic cycle without any discrimination, as “a prerequisite for achieving economic growth.”
It is not the first time that private companies in Lebanon prevent veiled women from working. Last February, ABC Ashrafieh refused to have a veiled saleswoman inside the complex, on the grounds that it was a “non-sectarian institution.”
