Woman alleges that Bengaluru school sacked her for wearing headscarf, school denies

Woman alleges that Bengaluru school sacked her for wearing headscarf, school denies
Woman alleges that Bengaluru school sacked her for wearing headscarf, school denies

Shahina Salman and her daughter   A school in Bengaluru allegedly asked a newly appointed teacher to stop wearing a headscarf to school, and on her refusal, was made to resign from the job.   The incident occurred at Kerala Samajam managed Jubilee school which is located in Vijinapura, near Whitefield.   Shahina Salman who had been recruited as “assistant mistress” says she was in for a rude shock on the first day of her work after she was reportedly pulled up by Principal Maria Gorathy and asked to stop wearing the headscarf.   Next day when Shahina reported to work wearing the headscarf, the principal allegedly told her that she had been replaced by someone else and asked her to submit a resignation letter.   Hailing from Malappuram district in Kerala, Shahina along with her four-year-old daughter had recently moved to the city to live with her husband.  Few days later, she applied for the position of assistant mistress at Jubilee school and subsequently was called for an interview on May 10.   The interview call letter   After being selected for the job, Shahina was asked to attend a training session on her first day of work on May 25. While attending the session, principal Gorathy reportedly asked her to not wear headscarf to school. Shahina says she tried to reason with the principal that this was part of her religious dress code, but she was asked to “dress up like other teachers (without the headscarf)”.   When Shahina went back to school the following day, the principal reportedly told her that she had been sacked from her job and was asked to submit a resignation letter.   "Next day when I reached the school, they told me that my job had been given to someone else and they asked me to resign from the job. They reasoned that my practices did not match with school's principles. They also suspended my daughter's admission in the same school. They said there is no vacancy left but she was already admitted in the school and we had remitted the fees," she said.   The resignation letter by Shahina   A distraught Shahina wrote a resignation letter stating she could not continue the job as she wasn’t being allowed “to follow her religious dress code”. The Principal marked this portion of the letter and asked her to replace the words with “personal reasons”.   Shahina also sought the refund of her daughter’s fees of Rs. 20,000 who had been admitted in the same school.   When The News Minute contacted Gorathy, she denied interviewing Shahina, let alone offering a job.  She further refused to acknowledge that Shahina’s daughter had been give admission in the school.    Fee receipt of her daughter   "I don't know any such person; I have not even heard that name. There has been no such incident. We had neither appointed any one by name Shahina nor interviewed her. As you allege her daughter had also not been admitted here," she said.   However, Shahina has documents on which she wrote her resignation letter, that has a seal of the Jubilee school along with the changes suggested by the principal.

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