WHEN the distinctly non-funky Bushra Noah, 19, applied for a job in a trendy London hairdressing salon, did she consider that she might be required to fit in with the image of salon?
Obviously not, for when she turned up at the salon, having being offered a trial day’s work, she insisted on wearing a headscarf – and took unbrage when the owner of the “alternative” Wedge salon, Sarah Desrosiers, said this was unacceptable.
Ms Desrosiers, according to the London Evening Standard, said that she was “selling an image” and, not unreasonably, needed her staff to display the salon’s “urban funky” hairstyles to the public.
Noah, 19, is now claiming religious discrimination and is suing Ms Desrosiers for more than £15,000 for injury to her feelings, as well as an unspecified sum for lost earnings.
Ms Desrosiers, 32, who set up her business in King’s Cross 18 months ago, has already spent more than £1,000 fighting the case and says that if she loses she will be forced to close.
She added:
I sell image - it’s very important - and I would expect a hair stylist to display her hair because I need people to be drawn in off the street. It’s the nature and style of my salon that brings people in and someone having their hair covered conflicts with that. If someone came in wearing a baseball hat or a cowboy hat I’d tell them to take it off while they’re working. To me, it’s absolutely basic that people should be able to see the stylist’s hair.
In a legal letter setting out her employment tribunal case, Ms Noah, from Acton, claims she was discriminated against and treated rudely at her interview in March and wrongly turned down for a job she was capable of doing because of her headscarf.
Ms Noah said she had attended a total of 25 interviews for hairdressing jobs without success and had decided to take legal action because she had been upset by Ms Desrosiers’ comments.
I decided to sue this hairdresser because she upset me the most. I felt so down and got so depressed, I thought if I am not going to defend myself, who is?
Ever since I was in high school hairdressing is what I wanted to do. It is sad for them to not give me the opportunity. This has ruined my ambitions. Wearing a headscarf is essential to my beliefs.”
Ms Desrosiers said she was struggling to find money to contest the hearing, scheduled for January. She said:
I’m being dragged through the mud and pretty much accused of being a racist. I feel it is totally unfair and wrong.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
November 9th, 2007 at 1:15 am
On this occasion though, I don’t think it is a religious issue - it is an issue about clothing, pure and simple. What if this had been a Sikh man or some random bald woman? Would we be making such an issue out of it then? The fact that Noah is Muslim has nothing to do with this case.
November 9th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Not a religious issue? Come on! The woman is claiming religious discrimination, and said “wearing a head-scarf is essential to my beliefs”. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that a Sikh man would want a job in a funky hairdressing salon, and a bald woman has the option of wearing a trendy wig.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
“a Sikh man would want a job in a funky hairdressing salon, and a bald woman has the option of wearing a trendy wig” - Well that’s a generalisation if ever I heard one. While I agree that on this occasion I don’t think Desrosiers was being racist (and therefore it is taking discrimination on religious grounds a bit too far), I think it is important to look at the issue in the wider context - why should Noah be refused a job because of what she is wearing? Our nation is rapidly slipping down a road that beleives everything that is hyped by the media. Come on, do us proud - use your brain!
January 26th, 2008 at 4:01 am
But I ask … why would a woman - obviously out-of-tune with typical European trends want to impose her sheltered beliefs upon a foreign based business - especially as a potential employee?
Would a Sikh expect to gain employment in a madrassa - even though he too wears a turban?
What about a “swine eater” demanding employment in a halaal butchery …
It’s all about common sense … nothing more; nothing less …
January 29th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
If Miss Noah was such a good hairdresser why had she been turned down
twenty five times previously? Furthermore why had the people who trained her let her go after eighteen months?
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
I cant even look at this ugly lipless goldigger bushra, im a muslim myself and think she should just drop the case and go look for another job..
May 19th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
First of all the title of this article is very well designed to piss of Muslims, I guess congratulations are in order if that’s what the author intended.
Second of all, it seems a little odd to me that a woman that takes her religion so seriously as to wear a hajib, that she would want to be a hair dresser. The whole point, I thought, of wearing a hajib was a display of modesty - why would such a religion woman devote a lifetime career to doing the opposite for other women?
May 31st, 2008 at 7:45 pm
i want to say that iam muslim ,bushra noah make a scandle for islam she use our religion to get money ,if she defend about her believe she doesnt ask about money before she want 15000 now she wants £35000 after that she will ask for 100,000£ just to build her buisness in syria her original country.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Either someone who believes it is wrong to display her own hair is genuinely keen to devote her entire professional life to helping other women to do just that, which is inconsistent at best … or she realised that it was a better way to get a payout than risking the odds on the National Lottery. Stand by for more of these cases…
June 17th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I agree wth the article. This stupid woman deliberately set out to look for someone to sue, because her inflexible attitude makes her choice of profession totally unsuitable.
Hairdressers do hair, and you wouldnt employ a hairdresser if they didnt have smart hair themselves. Theres an old ENGLISH proverb ‘Its a poor cook that cant lick his own fingers’. Showing off your skill with your own hair, and modeling hair for your employer clearly is a major part of being a successful hairdresser. If you cant do it, then you far less use to a hairdressing salon than someone who can.
this silly bitch knew what she was doing, just like the other one that refused to take her viel off when teaching children. they refuse to integrate and then scream racist and milk the system.
Quite frankly, this woman, along with all the other poor little hurt moslems that wont integrate, do more damage to the image of there own culture than any suicide bomber. They are less than 2 percent of the population, never mind the crap about multiculturalism, this is not a multicultural country, 98% of us are white English, Welsh or Scots, and the state religion is Christianity. We should not have to bow to this tiny minority every time they kick and scream and throw there toys out the pram and try and suppress free speech and rational debate with there fake cries of ‘racist’.
June 18th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
This is so unfair to the salon. At this point I think a bunch of people should just go by there and drop off a tenner to pay this ridiculous fine (which is what I’m doing today after work!). Nobody, and I mean NOBODY should be given an unfair advantage or special treatment because they can provide some religious pretext for feeling hard done by!
June 18th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I work as a pianoentertainer, if a guest comes up to me and says they don’t like what I play, do I a) tell them they’re neither the only, nor the most important, of all the poeple in the bar regardless of how they might see themselves or b) sue my employer for allowing such insensitive people into the bar?
What I hate most about this is it gives a bad image to Muslims who, without fail, I get along with very nicely.
June 18th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
There are at least two things wrong with this country.
The first is that somebody can go to court and get money for hurt feelings. Fuck, I should be a millionaire by now.
The second is that there is no political party actually prepared to stand up against it, in case they lose some Muslim votes. Or upset the Race lobby, who are paid from public money to get hurt if nobody else does.
So we are stuffed. Do we have to vote for the BNP who I think probably are racists and fascists? Are they the only ones who common-sense people can vote for?
Probably yes. No one else gives a shit.