Muslim Waitress sues over 'sexy' dress

[R/SGT]

Waitress sues over 'sexy' dress
18/12/2008 21:18 - (SA)

London - A Bosnian Muslim waitress has demanded compensation from the London bar where she worked over a red dress she was asked to wear, British media reported on Thursday.

Fata Lemes, 33, told an employment tribunal that she felt forced to wear the sleeveless dress with a low neckline and an open back, thought the Rocket bar was run like a "sex club" and filed for £20 000 in compensation.

Lemes described the dress as "physically revealing and openly sexual", according to the Daily Telegraph.

"It was indecent. If you put this dress on you might as well be naked. I did not want men looking at my body," the newspaper quoted her as saying.

"I was brought up a Muslim, and am not used to wearing sexually attractive clothes."

According to reports, Lemes said she originally began working at the bar in May wearing loose-fitting black clothes to work, but after about a week, she was told to wear the red dress.

After trying it on, she refused to wear it, and said she was immediately fired.

Spring and Greene, the restaurant group that owns the Rocket bar, rejected the claims, however, and said the dress had been chosen by two other waitresses to give a "summery" look.

The company also reportedly produced a photograph of the dress, worn by another waitress, with the Rocket's manager arguing that the colour of the dress was chosen to match that of the bar.

The employment tribunal is expected to deliver its judgment on the case next year


This is stupid

Does here faith even allow her to work in a bar and serve alcohol?

 

[CathJ]

I think the fact she's Muslim is actually irrelevant - if someone said I had to wear a strapless, open backed dress with a low neckline to work, I'd refuse.

It's not like she wore it, then complained about having to wear it. She tried it on, refused to wear it, and was fired. That's wrong.

Oh, and they never told her that would be a condition of the job when she started - she wore clothes she was happy with for a week.

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

Knowing how the UK loves kowtowing to these fanatic types, she'll win the case

 

[PeterCH]

Waitress sues over 'sexy' dress
18/12/2008 21:18 - (SA)

London - A Bosnian Muslim waitress has demanded compensation from the London bar where she worked over a red dress she was asked to wear, British media reported on Thursday.

Fata Lemes, 33, told an employment tribunal that she felt forced to wear the sleeveless dress with a low neckline and an open back, thought the Rocket bar was run like a "sex club" and filed for £20 000 in compensation.

Lemes described the dress as "physically revealing and openly sexual", according to the Daily Telegraph.

"It was indecent. If you put this dress on you might as well be naked. I did not want men looking at my body," the newspaper quoted her as saying.

"I was brought up a Muslim, and am not used to wearing sexually attractive clothes."

According to reports, Lemes said she originally began working at the bar in May wearing loose-fitting black clothes to work, but after about a week, she was told to wear the red dress.

After trying it on, she refused to wear it, and said she was immediately fired.

Spring and Greene, the restaurant group that owns the Rocket bar, rejected the claims, however, and said the dress had been chosen by two other waitresses to give a "summery" look.

The company also reportedly produced a photograph of the dress, worn by another waitress, with the Rocket's manager arguing that the colour of the dress was chosen to match that of the bar.

The employment tribunal is expected to deliver its judgment on the case next year


This is stupid

Does here faith even allow her to work in a bar and serve alcohol?

Let's forget her faith for a minute and look at it from civil rights POV.
She starts working and is told that a particular non-revealing dress is fine.
After some months, she is forced to wear a revealing dress.
When she refuses, she is fired.

A review of UK labour laws and the contract is necessary. If it's written in the conditions of her contract that she is to wear 'sexy' clothes to cater for the clientele that way - fine, she should not have issues. Although under UK law, which is quite socialist, she may still legally have recourse.

Don't just jump to sensationalist issues folks, people file suits over unfair dismissal all the time while Sexism is no longer tolerated in society (and by labour law).

 

[medicnick83]

This is London... I'm not surprised this type of stuff happens.

That whole country is full of idiots (minus the SA people who are there)

 

[CathJ]

Knowing how the UK loves kowtowing to these fanatic types, she'll win the case

How is she a fanatic? Just because she doesn't want to wear a skimpy dress?

 

[Slootvreter]

She doesn't have to sue, she can just refuse the job.

 

[Slaine73]

How is she a fanatic? Just because she doesn't want to wear a skimpy dress?

Any female refusing to wear nice sexy dress must be a raving, howling fanatic..."Ducks down and wait for the shoes to be thrown"

 

[brixton tower]

This is stupid

Does here faith even allow her to work in a bar and serve alcohol?

On the surface it might look stupid, but for a minute think how you would feel if your boss asked you to wear a ridiculous/degrading uniform. If its not in her contract of employment then I'd say she definitely has a case.

The fact that she's Muslim has very little to do with anything...her working in a bar and serving alcohol is a personal matter...humiliation at being forced to wear is sexy dress at work is a human rights issue- even wannabe fascists should understand this.

 

[marine1]

She doesn't have to sue, she can just refuse the job.

Exactly.

 

[LazyLion]

If this was in the Middle East, some radicals would probably stone her for Adultery and blow up the bar with a suicide bomber.

 

[Arthur]

She's right not to wear an immodest dress.
Employer is wrong to change an important employment condition.
Sad that people litigate over these sorts of issues.

 

[brixton tower]

If this was in the Middle East, some radicals would probably stone her for Adultery and blow up the bar with a suicide bomber.

But this is not the Middle East and we're more tolerant than the wahabists...that's unless you want a return to a Europe of the Middle Ages.

 

[Fudzy]

Exactly.

She was already hired though.

 

[Slaine73]

But this is not the Middle East and we're more tolerant than the wahabists...that's unless you want a return to a Europe of the Middle Ages.

Can we really??!! With swords and armor and horses and everything??!!!

 

[LazyLion]

But this is not the Middle East and we're more tolerant than the wahabists...that's unless you want a return to a Europe of the Middle Ages.

Just highlighting the discrepancy...

a British woman was killed in Afghanistan.. probably for her non-conformance to traditional dress.

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/10/20/asia/OUKWD-UK-AFGHAN-KILLING.php

A child of 13 was stoned to death in Somalia for "promiscuity"

http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/somalia-girl-stoned-was-child-13-20081031

I sympathise with this Muslim woman, but I have to ask "why was she trying to get a job in a bar anyway where her religious traditions were bound to clash with the British culture? I acknowledge it was not stated in her employment contract, but surely she had been into the bar before and noted the styles of dress and behaviour of the patrons? If she comes from a culture that has such radical traditions regarding dress and behaviour, then why was she looking for a job there?

 

[marine1]

She was already hired though.

Then it is wrong, in terms of the labour law.

 

[R/SGT]

Spring and Greene, the restaurant group that owns the Rocket bar, rejected the claims, however, and said the dress had been chosen by two other waitresses to give a "summery" look.

The dress doesnt look that bad

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...fusing-wear-sexually-available-red-dress.html

A Muslim cocktail waitress

Cocktail waiteresses usually were these type of dresses, it goes with the job.

 

[LazyLion]

The dress doesnt look that bad

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...fusing-wear-sexually-available-red-dress.html


Cocktail waiteresses usually were these type of dresses, it goes with the job.

The dress doesn't look bad at all. Looks like any evening dress.

BTW, I am still wondering why she is looking for a job that by its very nature clashes with her traditional laws....

http://islam.about.com/od/health/f/alcohol.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_dietary_laws

Alcohol

In Islam, alcoholic beverages — or any intoxicant — is forbidden. Intoxicants were forbidden in the Qur'an through several separate verses revealed at different times over a period of years. At first, it was forbidden for Muslims to attend to prayers while intoxicated (4:43). Then a later verse was revealed which said that alcohol contains some good and some evil, but the evil is greater than the good (2:219). This was the next step in turning people away from consumption of it. Finally, "intoxicants and games of chance" were called "abominations of Satan's handiwork," intended to turn people away from God and forget about prayer, and Muslims were ordered to abstain (5:90-91). In Surah Al-Baqarah: 219, is states "They ask Thee concerning Wine and Gambling, Say: In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit."[1][2]

Most Muslims avoid alcohol in any type of form, even the slight small amounts, such as used in cooking.

 

[Arthur]

that's unless you want a return to a Europe of the Middle Ages.

To Brixton Tower--Sidebar off-topic comment: The so-called Middle Ages were far more open and tolerant than we think. People know a few grisly high-profile examples - about half a dozen over 500 years! - but they're noteworthy for being exceptions rather than the rule. In many ways our own age is far more intolerant.

Prof Greg Macy: ...There was a myth sold in the church from the late 19th century until about 1950 that the church had always been the way it was then, and that the papacy was always in charge. It just isn't true."

No line to toe

Medieval theology and practice suggest a far more tolerant perspective than is generally thought, he said. "Many people have a picture of the Middle Ages as a time when you had to toe the line or find yourself in prison for heresy." In reality, he said, "there was no line to toe."

He noted that the stereotype has even infiltrated Hollywood. "One of the real consistent themes" in television and movies is that the medieval church was oppressive, he said. He remembers watching year after year a spooky Halloween special set in a medieval village. "There were lots of dark shadows" and a narrator's mood-setting words: "Once upon a time in the Dark Ages, when men's minds were dark. ..."

Macy keeps on his bookshelves a book by an Italian scholar, Matteo Sanfilippo, who mocks such notions. It is titled Il Medioevo Secondo Walt Disney: Come l'America ha reinventato l'Eta di Mezzo -- in English, The Middle Ages According to Walt Disney: How America has reinvented the Middle Ages (Castelvecchi, 1993).

Back to topic. Her religion is not legally relevant. And no-one says she was imbibing alcohol, so muslim rules don't seem to be violated by her working at a cocktail bar.