Norway hit a hairdresser
with a fine of 10,000 kroner (S$ 1,650) on Monday (Sept 12) after she was
convicted of discrimination for turning away a Muslim client wearing a
headscarf.
Merete Hodne had risked
up to six months in prison for religious discrimination for turning Ms Malika
Bayan, 24, away from her hair salon in Bryne, a small town in south-western
Norway, in October last year.
“The court has no doubt
that the defendant acted intentionally, that she deliberately discriminated
against Bayan by expelling her from the salon because she is Muslim,” the court
ruled.
It imposed the fine and
also ordered her to pay 5,000 kroner in court costs.
Hodne intends to appeal
against the decision, her lawyer told news agency NTB.
The 47-year-old
hairdresser told the court she saw the headscarf as a political symbol
representing an ideology that frightens her, rather than as a religious symbol.
“I see it as a
totalitarian symbol. When I see a hijab, I don’t think of religion, but of
totalitarian ideologies and regimes,” she told the judges.
According to the charge
sheet, Hodne told Ms Bayan “she would have to find someplace else because she
didn’t accept (clients) like her”.
The hairdresser
initially refused to pay a fine of 8,000 kroner for religious discrimination,
so the case went before the Jaeren district court on Thursday.
While Hodne acknowledged
that she could have turned Ms Bayan away more courteously, she denied the
charge of religious discrimination.
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