Air France stewardesses, furious at being ordered to wear headscarves in Tehran, say they will refuse to fly to the Iranian capital when the airline resumes the service later this month.
Female members of flight crews have been ordered to cover their hair once they disembark in Tehran and unions are demanding that the flights be made voluntary for women.
The resumption of a thrice-weekly service between Paris and Tehran, planned for April 17 after an eight-year break, follows a thaw in relations since Iran agreed to dismantle large sections of its nuclear programme.
French women see Islamic headscarves and veils as an affront to their dignity. Headscarves are banned in French state schools and offices, and it is illegal to wear the full-face Muslim veil in public.
Flore Arrighi, head of the UNAC flight crews’ union, said: “It is not our role to pass judgement on the wearing of headscarves or veils in Iran. What we are denouncing is that it is being made compulsory. Stewardesses must be given the right to refuse these flights.” She added that female staff were entitled to exercise “individual freedoms”.
The financially ailing French airline, which sees the resumption of Tehran flights as an “excellent” business development, pointed out that other airline staff were obliged to comply with Iranian rules. “Tolerance and respect for the customs of the countries we serve are part of the values of our company,” Air France argued that French law allows “the restriction of individual liberties” if “justified by the nature of the task to be accomplished.”
Françoise Redolfi of the UNSA union said Air France had told staff it was restoring rules that applied before 2008, when Air France discontinued flights to Iran as the country’s relations with western nations deteriorated over concerns that it was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. “The general environment now is much more sensitive,” she said. “Many female members of flight crews have informed us that it is out of the question that they be obliged to wear headscarves. It is not professional and they see it as an insult to their dignity.”
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One Response
It’s good to see these women refuse to wear the headscarf. Why should they have to wear what is essentially a symbol of female submission in Islam? Prior to the revolution in 1979 the headscarf was not common there, but the Ayatollah Khomeini enforced its wearing by females as a sign of “piety.” And now Air France wants to enforce it on its female staff, despite its obvious violation of the basic human right to be free from religion. The “task to be accomplished” is purely monetary, which seems to trump the right of the female staff to personal freedom.
The imposition of the headscarf on female visitors to Iran is purely in the interest of political power. I’ve never understood how female tourists are seemingly happy to don the scarf there. Have they no pride in their own identities? Do they not understand the struggle of so many women to be free from this badge of submission?
Remember Oriana Fallaci and her famous interview with the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979? She at first wore the headscarf but part way through removed it and proceeded to tell him what she really thought about it. It’s good to see that her spirit is still alive.