LENEXA, KS (KCTV) — Areej Saifan, like many other teenagers, was just trying to work a part-time job while going to college.
She worked at a local Chipotle where she says an assistant manager repeatedly harassed her about wearing her hijab.
“Since July, my manager kept asking to see my hair and I kept telling him no and to stop asking,” said Saifan. “He kept repeating to see my hair and I told him to stop asking me, I wear this for religious reasons.”
Saifan says the man would not take “No” for an answer.
“I just turned back to work and he came behind me pulled my scarf down,” said Saifan. “I felt like I was exposed, humiliated, I felt like, why would someone do this to me?’
The assistant manager involved in the incident has been fired, but it wasn’t immediately. The action came after pressure from the Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Kansas).
“Someone pulling the hijab off is probably the closest thing I can say, it’s almost like somebody coming to a non-Muslim woman, and pulling her shirt off or pulling her pants off,” said Moussa Elbayoumy, chair of CAIR-Kansas. “It’s humiliating, exposing what she considers to be something private.”
Elbayoumy said what happened to this teenager is just one example of the increase in bigotry and harassment Muslims often face. He said the hate started shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
“It has been escalating and over the last four or five years, it has multiplied several fold,” said Elbayoumy. He said the bullying happens in businesses, neighborhoods and inside schools.
“And that needs to stop,” said Elbayoumy. “We as a society are much better than this, and need to stand up and say, We cannot allow this to continue in our society.”
Saifan filed a police report and the police are investigating what happened but its unclear if the assistant manager will face assault or battery charges. Saifan and her supporters say it needs to be considered a hate crime.
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