Of religion, women, and American safety.

I went to the gas station to purchase lottery tickets the other day.  While making my purchase, a beautiful young lady came in with a head covering on. I paid her no mind but did notice that she pulled back the part across her face to reveal a beautiful, flawless face.  The cashier interrupted my purchase to immediately tell this young woman that she had to totally remove the scarf or be refused service and have to leave.

She became wide eyed while removing the scarf and said "But this is for my religion!" She was quite pleasant about the whole thing but it was painfully obvious she was offended.  The cashier continued (I put my wallet down to watch this) "I don't care, for safety reasons, you cannot have your head covered and come into this store. It is a city law!"  As he completed this statement, I turned to look and see a man with a ball cap come in, purchase gas and leave without incident or so much as anything being said to him. Wow.  Mind you, I would not have thought much of the request for the young lady to remove her scarf but she was definitely NOT of Middle Eastern descent. Or, if she was, it was not that apparent.  She was black.

I began to take offense at this point but said nothing. I felt like those kids you see in the bullying commercials where they are watching a kid getting smacked around and taunted but are doing nothing. I felt like one of those kids helpless to do anything for the person that is being bullied.

So the girl removed her scarf and mumbled something to the tune of  "I can't believe this."  I made my purchase and went to my car. Because I like to scratch my tickets in the car and remained in the parking lot for a few minutes, I was present when that young lady came out. She must have prepaid for gas for her mother as she walked to a car at the pumps.  It was relatively quiet that day at the gas station and I heard that mother began to lecture her daughter on the dangers of removing her head cover and how inappropriate it was to do such a thing outside of school.  I could only shake my head but I felt absolutely awful for this child. She must have been about fifteen or so.  I could not allow this to continue. I started up my car and pulled a little closer to the mother and child speaking. (My kids were in the car and I was not going to leave them there. Besides, this is a teachable moment and I was doing a good thing.) I did note that the mother was actually listening to the girl but was wholly unimpressed with the fact that she removed her scarf.

I had to open my mouth and say something. I told the lady that I was not aware of the city law that says that you have to violate your religion to remove your head scarf and how ludacris I thought it was for the man inside the store to demand such a thing. I explained to the mother that she did show her face and that should have been acceptable. The mother stopped fussing and looked at her daughter. The daughter, exasperated at this point, simply said. "Exactly."  The mother then apologized to the daughter and I was happy that I could have alleviated some stress for that child. Imagine what she has to go through! She has to meet demands of merchants who fear for their safety because she acts like she is from the middle east and then has to listen to the ranting of her mother about the importance of religion and this horrible thing she did simply to pay for something or make a purchase in a free country. 

Honestly folks, showing her full face should have been enough.  People wear hats inside of buildings all the time. They wear do rags and Jews wear their little head coverings all the time. Remember the Amish? What about the lady who wears the shower cap on her head over her rollers because she has to run to Kmart to get something to set her hair with? Nobody ever asks those people to remove their head coverings for our safety, do they? Nope.

Point being, we are supposed to have freedom of religion and if that said religion is part of one person that committed atrocities to this nation, it does not mean that the rest of that particular population or religion is an immediate threat. I understand the safety part and she did what she thought proper in the circumstances and still had to stand in the line of fire with an elder and the cashier never knew about it. I wanted to drag that cashier out there to see what he had done. But....Such it is that we are....I was just glad I was able to say something to help her.

What do you think about this and do you have your own experiences to share?