Disneyland and a Hijab wearing Muslim woman have reached a costuming option acceptable to both sides – the disagreement continues for a restaurant hostess who is currently not working because of a conflict between her religious beliefs and Disney’s costuming requirements. See the related article below for the background on Imane Boudlal, a hostess at Storyteller's Restaurant in the Disney Grand Californian Hotel.

According to sources at Disneyland, Boudlal’s union representative, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, Boudlal has not been able to reach agreement with Disney and she remains out of work. Her union issued a statement August 24 stating Boudlal had been “suspended without pay.” But, Suzi Brown, Disney Director Media Relations, told OC180NEWS Boudlal was not suspended and even though she is not currently being scheduled for work, Boudlal remains a full time employee.

Boudlal filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission and her case is still open. According to Brown, Boudlal could return to work when she is ready to accept the costume option Disney offered her, or a back office position which would be out of guest view.

“We have made every attempt to provide Ms. Boudlal with several different costuming options that we believe would accommodate her religious beliefs and meet our costuming guidelines,” said Brown. “We also offered her four different roles that would allow her to wear her own hijab. She’s chosen to reject all the options presented to her.”

Another Muslim woman who wanted to wear her head scarf at Disneyland, Noor Abdallah, works as a vacation planning intern and was able to reach a costume design which accommodated her religious needs and did not compromise the “Disney look.” Both women are represented by CAIR-LA Staff Attorney and Deputy Executive Director Ameena Qazi.

Qazi told OC180NEWS in both cases, Disney’s first option for accommodation was to offer the women jobs which were out of guest view, but also, less desirable from the employee’s perspective.

Cair said in a statement “CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush last week sent a letter to Disney executives advocating a change in Disney's Look Policy, in keeping with the company's diversity initiatives, that will allow qualified Muslim women who wear the hijab to be recruited and retained as Disney employees.

Ayloush wrote in part: ‘[This] ‘case clearly demonstrates that accommodation of Muslim women's requests to wear the headscarf is possible in "front-stage" positions or positions with significant guest interaction . . . I strongly urge Disney to institutionalize a process for Muslim women, or others who make similar religious accommodation requests, to be accommodated in these front-stage positions in a timely and good faith manner.’

But Suzi Brown told us Disney did not do anything special in the case of Noor Abdallah. “Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has a long history of accommodating a variety of religious requests from cast members of all faiths —with more than 200 accommodations made over the last three years and this instance was no different.”

According to Brown, the only difference between the two cases was that one of the two women accepted Disney’s costume offer and the other did not. In the case of Imane Boudlal, the alternative costume was made more difficult because the restaurant and hotel have a rustic, turn-of-the-century Craftsman theme. Disney did what they could consistent with that theme and it was not acceptable to the employee.
In the case of Noor Abdallah, the theme for that position is more generic and not related to a specific time period. Thus, Disney was able to come up with a costume which was in accordance with the position’s theme and also accommodating to the employee.