KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — Negri Sembilan will not renew the operating licence of hotels in the state that forbid their female employees from wearing tudung or headscarves.
Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said he gave the instruction to the local councils as the no-tudung policy showed discrimination and disrespect for local culture and religions, Malay daily Utusan Malaysia reported today.
“If they don’t want to respect our culture and religion then they don’t have to conduct their business here.
“They can go to the United States or France that bans tudung for hotel staff,” he reportedly told a press conference in Rembau yesterday.
He added that the state government will not hesitate in taking stern action against hotel operators who behave discriminately towards female Muslim workers.
Mohamad’s directive follows a federal call from Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar to local authorities to withdraw the licences of hotels that ban female Muslim staff from wearing the headscarf at work.
The Malaysian Labour Centre of the Union Network International had earlier this month claimed to have received complaints from female hotel workers that they were forced to remove their headscarves while on the job, trigger a debate when the Malaysian Association of Hotels said it was a common frontline policy among some international chain hotels.
However, the Department of Labour of Peninsular Malaysia disclosed last Saturday that it had yet to discover any incident of international chain hotels banning frontline Muslim women employees from wearing the headscarves.
