FORT WORTH, Texas _ A woman who was sent home from her job at Chicken Express for refusing to remove her hijab, a piece of head apparel typically worn by Muslim women, said she is not sure she wants to return to work.
Rhett Warren, the attorney representing the Chicken Express on Blue Mound Road in Saginaw, Texas, said Stefanae Coleman remains on the schedule for next week and is still employed.
But Coleman said the work environment that she has weathered since she started wearing her hijab has been so hostile that she is unsure that she wants to return.
Coleman said she had been working at the Chicken Express for nearly three months without any push-back regarding her attire. Coleman also said she informed restaurant management that she had converted to Islam and would soon be wearing her hijab to work and nothing was said.
But the first day she wore the hijab, on Monday, she became the subject of comments about her ability to stay on the job, Coleman said.
It turns out the comments from her co-workers were prophetic, she said.
After Coleman worked for five minutes on Monday, the manager told her that the hijab was not a part of the Chicken Express uniform and that anything that has nothing to do with Chicken Express would have to be removed, Coleman said.
"He (the manager) said we don't care about your religion _ it's not bringing in any money," Coleman said her manager told her.
When she refused to remove the headscarf, the manager told her that he would have to discuss her continued employment with others in the restaurant's management.
"I was in disbelief that he actually said it," Coleman said.
Coleman posted details about the incident on Twitter and was told about several organizations that she might contact. The DFW chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations became involved and reached out to the franchisee to offer diversity training for the Chicken Express staff, said Faizan Syed, CAIR-DFW executive director.
Coleman received an apology from the owner and the organization began conversations with the restaurant about setting up training for the restaurant staff, Syed said.
Once employees and management understand the correct information regarding the religious significance of the hijab, they typically become more accommodating, Syed explained.
"We also got a letter from the management of the company telling us that manager had been reprimanded," Syed said. "But this happens more often than I'd like to see."
Warren said in a statement that the manager's decision to send Coleman home for wearing the headscarf was due to a lack of training. The manager was using a strict interpretation of the company policy that does not allow derivations from the standard employee uniform, and he unfortunately did not take religious liberty into consideration, that statement said.
"Ms. Coleman was paid for the hours that she would have worked that day, and she is still employed at that Chicken Express location," his statement said.
Coleman has been asked to participate in developing the training so that a mistake like this will not reoccur, the statement said.
The manager will receive further training on how to properly handle similar situations in the future and Syed with the Council on American-Islamic Relations has also been invited to participate in additional training for the managers and staff at this Chicken Express location, according to Warren.
Coleman said that it will take additional training, some policy changes and more respect for the culture and religions of others to set this incident right.
"Because it's been a hostile environment, I'm still considering whether or not I should return to work," Coleman said. "Co-workers are saying that I'm doing this for attention and I just don't want to work in a place where I'm being talked about like that."
