Dress Code

[andrewducker]

[Poll #845318]

Note - for "Veil" also read "crucifix" or any other religious paraphenalia. What with BA having told an employee she can't wear a cross.

Oh - and the final question should have ended with "as non-religious bases".

Comments

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Forbidding someone to wear something that their religion requires isn't the same as requiring something to wear a uniform (even if it's limited, i.e., a tie.) And honestly, if there were a religion that said it was immoral to wear ties, I'd think the employer ought to back off there too. I just don't think that dress codes are important enough to warrant interfering with someone's religious convictions. Frex, if a woman whose religion dictated that she could not wear pants (there are a number of Christian divisions that say this) worked for a company whose dress code required that pants be worn, I think they ought to concede that she can wear a conservatively cut skirt that matches the pants in color and fabric. Unless, that is, there is a practical reason that skirts cannot be worn (legs need protection for some reason, or whatever). Similarly, regarding the recent case where a schoolteacher got in trouble because she wore a veil and her students said they couldn't hear her through it - if they really couldn't hear her, I think the school would be right to demand that she take it off, or at least get a sheerer or more sound-porous fabric.

In short, I think religious requirements, if they don't pose practical problems on the job, should be respected as far as is possible.

[andrewducker]

So you'd argue that religion can dictate things while other preferences can't?

Seems a tad unfair on us atheists.

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

I think it comes down to whether one considers religion a "preference". I actually was discussing that with λ after I posted my comment, and we didn't come to any hard-and-fast conclusions. I do think the frequent intersections of religion and culture/race make this particularly difficult to untangle, as does the fact that while religion looks like a preference on the outside to an atheist, that's definitely not how many religious people would define it. So I think there's difficulty in defining it as well. Religion is often such a part of both one's cultural and personal identity that I think when issues surrounding it arise in the public sphere we need to be careful to examine our actions closely. But, in the end, my answers are not as firm as I thought they were, and I'm going to have to think more about it.