ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA A restaurant hostess at Disneyland’s Grand Californian Hotel has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying the hotel’s policy prohibiting the wearing of headscarves while in front-of-house positions is discriminatory.
Imane Boudlal, 26, has been told that wearing the headscarf, known as a hijiab, is not in line with “the Disney look.” The hotel has offered to transfer her to a back-of-house role, a proposal she calls insulting.
Boudlal, a Muslim, wears the hijab for religious reasons. Boudlal has been a hostess at the hotel’s Storybook Café for two years; she only recently decided to begin wearing the hijab.
A Disney spokeswoman says Boudlal is not being prohibited from working while wearing the hijab, only that she is not allowed to wear the hijab while working in a guest-facing role.