By Sana Elouazi
By Sana Elouazi
Rabat – A Muslim woman living in Britain has claimed she was prevented from entering a McDonald’s restaurant by a security guard, who asked her to remove her headscarf or leave the restaurant because it was a “security threat.”
A video posted on Twitter by her friend Sabrina showed the man telling the 19-year-old student to take off her headscarf at the branch on Seven Sisters Road, in Holloway, north London.
“It’s just a matter of taking it off,” he says, after she accused him of committing a hate crime.
Here is the video of the incident, occurring at McDonald’s on Seven Sister’s Road in Holloway, London. pic.twitter.com/07acmBYdjB
— Sabrina (@south_sab) December 1, 2017
“It’s not just a matter of taking it off. I wear this for religious reasons and I’m not ashamed of it, and I will stand in line and I will get the food I want, because this isn’t okay,” she replies.
When another customer intervenes to defend the teenager, the guard tells him that it is “none of his business,” which further provokes the young woman.
“This is f—ing ridiculous,” she says, when a member of staff asked her not to be “rude” and stop filming, which she refuses to do.
She is then told she will be served but decides to walk out from the restaurant instead, saying that she doesn’t want anything any more.
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke to The Guardian about the incident.
“I thought: ‘It’s finally happening to me,’ like it has to so many hijabis. It didn’t feel real because I had seen so many videos like this and it was finally happening to me in real life. I was in so much disbelief,” the woman said.
“The friend I was with was shocked and scared, said it was a risky situation. When it was over, I finally realised how these situations can become dangerous. This is not a one-off thing, I will never walk into McDonald’s again,” she added.
The American fast food chain has apologised to the woman for the incident and said it was not the company’s policy to ban hijabs.
“McDonald’s does not have a policy in place which restricts or prevents anyone wearing a hijab, or any other religious dress, from entering,” a McDonald’s spokeswoman said.
“We welcome customers of all faiths and would like to apologise to the customer as this situation should not have taken place, we are taking this matter very seriously and are addressing the situation with the individuals involved; the security guard, from a third party company, has been suspended,” she added.
