A staff member currently working at the resort told Minivan News that a notice regarding the matter was issued by the resort five months ago.
“There was a female staff member who wore the headscarf who was asked to leave her job two months ago because the resort’s management refused to renew her employment contract [because] she wears a headscarf,” he claimed.
A second staff member Minivan News spoke to also claimed the resort had notified staff that it would not renew the contracts of staff wearing the headscarf.
The allegation first appeared on the Dhivehi Post news blog, which quoted a female staff member at the resort as saying that elderly women living on a nearby island, employed by the resort for cleaning jobs, were issued the same notice.
Human Resources Manager at Kuredhoo Khadeeja Adam said she did not wish to comment on the matter and referred Minivan News to the resort’s General Manager.
Kuredhoo’s General Manager Andrea Nestle also refused to comment on the matter, but said the allegations she had read in her translation of the Dhivehi Post report were incorrect. She referred Minivan News to the head of Champa Trade and Travels in Male’, Abdulla Saleem.
Saleem told Minivan News that the resort policy was established by the resort’s management team, and said he had nothing to do with the policy.
”The management team works very independently and we have no influence on them,” he said.
Secretary General of the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), Mohamed ‘Sim’ Ibrahim, told Minivan News that the issue was a “very sensitive” one, “because some [guests] get a bit taken aback. Some are a bit worried about it because they associate the dress with fundamentalism and militant Islam.”
“We don’t want to encourage people to wear the full burqa when they are serving tourists at the front desk, the first line of contact with guests,” he said.“But we don’t have a problem with them working in the office, or in general. It’s up to the resort owner.”
He noted that the right to wear the headscarf was a fundamental right, but that it was also a legal right for a resort to designate its own uniform and dress code.
The issue of discrimination, he noted, had led to “huge problems” in countries such as France.
A French law passed in 2004 banning the display of religious affiliation in schools, including dress and iconography, sparked protests across the Muslim world and also in countries such as the United States which expressed concern that the restrictions violated the France’s international human rights commitments.
In September 2010, the French Senate passed a bill 246 to 1 making it illegal to wear veils covering the face, with fines of €150 for women and €30,000 for men who forced their wives to do so, doubled in the case of minors.
Amnesty International condemned the French bill as a violation of freedom of expression.
“States have an obligation under international law to respect the human rights of everyone without discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status; to protect them against abuses of those rights by third parties, including by private actors within their families or communities; and to ensure they are able to exercise those rights in practice,” the international humanitarian organisation claimed.
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Resorts should have the right to use a uniform design of their choice. Please Minivan don't make a big issue about these things and destroy our tourism industry.
with no headscarf its better for one of the owners ..."lady killer" !!!!
wait! are there full burqa wearing staff woking in resorts? i see many veiled women in resorts which is perfectly normal.
but are we talking about saudi style, bodu buruqa?
ANOTHER SUCCESS DAY FOR THE SECULARIST!! these crazy secularist want to make Maldives another France or Swissland! Amazing these shameless B@@@@s adovocate for humanrights and yet they deny women from wearing what they want!! Most of these hard core secularist/atheists are sex maniacs who want to see women semi naked..and enjoy their imaginary fantacies!! I wonder what Champa would do if a Indian Sik who wear head turb comes for a job? I think after few years these secularist would demand women not to wear bra too when they go for work at this rate of so called liberalisation!
Typical front-page news from Minivan.
@Rinzy... minivan has the right to make it as a big issue, cause this is a Muslim country and its ppl have the right to dress according to the Islamic way,
Foreign investors, resort owners government and the private parties if they like it or not have to respect that...
i don't know from which part of the world ur from but the look of ur name "Rinzy" it sure sounds like a garudhiya eating Maldivian,
and mind u its not destroying the tourism, sounds like u know nothing abt tourism...
Have u ever heard of a county called DUBAI.... i strongly suggest u to google it and see if all the females working there are with veils or not.....
stupid country bia!@#$tch......
Dress codes are perfectly acceptable in work places.
I remember state minister Shaheem making a fuss about this on an earlier date.
My stand on this issue is the same - all resorts should allow head-scarves on women, the day that the Islamic Ministry hires women who do not wear head-scarves.
"Discrimination" works both ways - don't you think?
lol agreed with Yaamyn. However, it is the right of a woman to wear the head-scarf, but if a resort doesn't want that in their dress code, then there is not much to say here.
Interesting topic this one, if it is clearly stated in the resort policy and the staff member signs that they agree to this policy then they are accepting the resorts terms etc. If a policy is changed and staff are advised through a process of open discussion then everyone has had a fair chance to voice their opinion.... Media as always will try to twist a story.
If the resort owners don't want to hire scarfed ladies, they should be able to do it.
It's a fit for purpose job. You can't hire men or women for divers if they can't do that.
If the scarfed ladies are a concern of the tourists /clients it needs to be considered and action taken. From some tourists point of view, it reminicises the terrorist activities across the globe.
There are other perfect jobs for more religious girls. Not ones in which you regularly encounter scantily clothed men/women, and serving alcohol and pork.
Oh my people, thou shan't commit a crime by banning Burqa (the head scarf). Thou shall respect the religious teachings. Oh the people of resorts, follow Islam. Ye, verily, the heaven is granted for the good doers.
this is a clear violation of basic human rights and the management must be held responsible for it. wearing headscarf is an individual right of every woman.
Its time Reko Moosa and co to write a bill the parliament, that every Maldivian women work in resort to wear bikini.I will be not surprise to see this bill debate in the parliament.
this shows the lack of tolerence towards islam...Champa, pray that god does not punish you for such misdeeds. You took away a persons livelihood over an extra piece of cloth
haha Has SIm actually been out of this country then. Headscarf wearing women regularly serve people and interract even in malaysia and indonesia. If you have been to london or even brmingham it is very difficult not to run into headscarf wearing women so do people from Europe actually hide every time they see this. Kuredu is mainly a British tourist island and I think average English men and women have alreday met or know a head scarf wearing Muslim from home. So Sim I think its you that get scared of peoples faith and as difficult it is to live in this Muslim bashing world you are all for to making it difficult to show ones faith in ones own country.Stupidity like this gives extremists hope and ways to influence others minds.
SIM you are crazy, whats wrong with fundamentalism by the way, following fundamentals of what you believe, I don't understand there is anything wrong in that. The problem is those who don't follow fundamentals of anything, be it constitution, religion or that matter anything.
oh dear safari. you are very wrong. secularism does not mean being anti islamic or even anti wahhabi. i support secularism but im of the opinion that resorts should not discriminate against people wearing the head scarf. then again, a person who write that wearing the buruga is not a wajib or one who refuse to wear the buruga should not be arrested.
and why does everything have to do with sex for you guys.
also, safari.... wearing the buruga have nothing to do with modesty. most of the promiscuous women i knw wear the buruga and pray and fast. my point is, not wearing or not supporting the burugaa doesnt make one a sexmaniac. and wearing the burugaa doesnt make one pious or promiscuous. it is all about what we believe and what our values are.
unlike what you think (or being thought for by the mullahs), secularism is not about converting you to another religion or atheism. and everyone in the west aint always drunk and having sex on the streets. secularism is not atheism. wahhabism is not islam. atheism is not being without values. why do you guys mix up everything!!!? :/
If the facts of the story is correct, then the resort has clearly been insensitive to workers rights. Tourism has moved far from since the days of spear-fishing fun Italians on the Villingili beach. Now most (that means 99%) of guests go online and checkout their would be destination before check-in at a resort in Maldives. So its very unlikely that the guests will be offended or unaware that women wear head-scarves in Islamic countries. Its part of a tourists holiday experience to see sights and sounds they haven't experienced back at home. So we would rather venture as to say its the management that's intolerant and huffed and puffed up rather than the guests. Most of the tourists (that also means 99%) empathize with the workers and generally have favourable view of workers rather than the employers, irrespective of the dress code. What matters is the sincere smile, the heartfelt talk, the hard work and personal conviction.
It is important to realize the discrimination Muslim citizens of our nation are experiencing today. Despite religion, it is not uncommon to see many Muslim countries such as Jordan, Morocco, Malaysia, and Indonesia with the tourist industry blooming. In fact, religion has not been an issue of concern; we see resorts are still over flowing with tourists. I have never read or heard about any tourists going into psychological trauma after seeing people with headscarves. It is people with headscarves at the airport counters who welcome tourists with pleasant smiles. When did they ever feel they were being greeted by militant fundamentalists and feel threatened or express fear? Don’t they already know that they are coming into a country of Muslims? However, Mr Sim Mohamed’s comments has had me fearing for our own nation as I believe those words were threatening to our society. Although we are Muslim nation and wear headscarves, we have not refrained ourselves from social and human interaction. Yet compassionately we serve and are hospitable to tourists regardless of what their background may be or their religious beliefs. Recently, our government announced that soon we would be assisted by Israeli eye surgeons to serve our community. It is to our understanding that there has been an ongoing conflict between Muslims and Israelis, yet we wholeheartedly trust and invite them without fear. It saddens me to have someone in a high and influencing position such as Mr. Mohamed (whose wife is the current tourism minister) to have commented against our own citizens who wear headscarves. He had also stressed that a uniform code is a legal right, and it is my understanding that his intentions are to ban the headscarf as it apparently creates fear among tourists (shouldn’t we consider the headscarf as a part of the uniform? Can’t we point out the positive attributions such as for hygiene reasons?) To deprive our citizens of work in the tourism industry because of their choice to wear the headscarf is a shocking announcement. Many young Maldivians with headscarves have travelled all over the world to gain a better education and have come and are coming back with high qualification in the hope of broadening our tourist industry and developing our nation. Mr. Mohamed noted that the right to wear the headscarf was a fundamental right. Instead of standing for this beautiful right, to take away the rights of these workers is inexcusable. I believe this is promoting ignorance, fear and hate, taking away the little unity left, when today the rest of the world is fighting against discrimination and division amongst people. It is an opportunity for us to show people that everyone who wears a headscarf is not a militant fundamentalist. Instead, shouldn’t we be proud to show the empowering Muslim women working out in the field, breaking the view of the world that Muslim woman are oppressed and expected to stay at home. Shouldn’t we celebrate that we have been given the opportunity to show them the beauty in Islam and our nation.
It's a fundamental right. end of story.
Atheism is VALUELESS and SHAMELESS PEOPLE! SECULARIST ARE DANGEROUS AND REAL EXTREMIST! This a fact! Just because this two different but mostly one group who is now in leadership or having vast majority of wealth doesn't mean they are with values or less extreme! Sim Ibrahim and his like minds are dangerous elements within Maldives society to radicalize Maldivians society to allow alcohol and Gay rights wide open to society!
@alibe.. so you see me as a valueless, shameless, dangerous extremist? Oh, okay. Thanks for sharing your opinion
(I disagree with you by the way) but it is often people like me who choose to spend their hard earned money in your country.
@alibe...furthermore, if attitudes like yours spread, Maldives could go back to an economy dependant on exporting cowry shells.
'Sim' is unfit to hold this post and doesn't know how to address such issues! He is crazy .... to compare Maldives with France on the head scarf issue. He is a fool with lots of western influence ... Wife educated in Australia , daughter same and married to an Australian. ... Let his family walk around with bikinis! While maldivians enjoy with their traditions. Visitors and tourists are educated and they know how to respect traditions unlike 'sims' family.
Another smart trick by Minivan Devil.
We know that Minivan Devil brought this issue not because of favour of Muslim but you are trying to open a door for freedom of religion. We knew that people like you are working day and night to bring other religions here.
Well, carry on your work but remember that there is someone who is looking and recording every single movement of yours and others like you.
We assure you that we will go on fighting whatever means, until our last breath, to protect our nation from devil people like minivan staff and devil Democracy religion. Insha'Allah.
I am sure that management of the Kuredhoo resort must have had warned these girls not to wear scarf. They have a right there because wearing head scarf is not compulsory in Maldives. First make it mandatory then crib.
@moyameeha, I think it is an endless struggle trying to explain some brainwashed fanatics what 'secular' actually means. They hear the wrong explanation too often by some self-declared Mullahs.
for more info abt kuredu pls call 7982055(rudhaa)
she alredy lost the job coz veil
I think this issue is only created by the resort management. Just check if they are Danish...They do have a problem with Islam