By Heena Khandelwal / Mid-day
Dr Syeda Ruksheda, a practising psychiatrist and psychotherapist, says she wasn’t allowed to participate in a morning show of a Hindi news channel, because she wore a hijab. “[Such bias] It limits the options and reduces the space we can occupy. Women end up feeling that they can’t do this because of who they are and who they choose to be seen as,” she says
For Mumbai resident Dr Syeda Ruksheda, the hijab is very much part of her identity. A practising psychiatrist and psychotherapist for over two decades now, Ruksheda doesn’t shy away from wearing her faith on her sleeve, even though, she admits, being discriminated against professionally.
This realisation dawned on her quite early on in her career, when 12 years ago, a production house that was looking for a mental health expert for a morning show of a Hindi news channel, refused to entertain her. “We spoke over the phone. They were happy to learn that I was well versed in Hindi and asked me to visit the studio for the show,” recalls Ruksheda. “But, when I went there the following day, they seemed a little taken aback.” One of the first things they asked her was if she would remove her hijab. Ruksheda declined politely, but that incident left a bad taste in her mouth.
Aleena Gandhi, who alleges that she was denied a job because of her faith, now runs her own digital marketing and content company, Social Media Dissect, which also has employed hijabi Muslim women. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
Another 42-year-old female PR professional, who is Muslim, claims her religion came in the way of securing a job with a leading multi-speciality hospital in Mumbai. This was in 2019. “I applied and cleared multiple rounds of interviews with the HR and managers… I even presented a plan. To be honest, it was one of my best interviews. The final round was with the CEO, who was also impressed with my action plan. Somewhere during our conversation, he asked me my name and everything went south after that. His tone suddenly became condescending with each idea of mine being shot down. There was no communication afterwards. Later, someone else was hired,” she shares anonymously.
Dr Ruha Shadab, founder and CEO, Led By Foundation, an organisation focused on the economic empowerment of Indian Muslim women, says she’d heard many anecdotal accounts about such prevalent biases. “And, while we have had socio-economic indicators showing the lack of participation and inclusion, we neither had any data to quantify these experiences nor was there enough to identify the root cause barriers,” she says over a phone call. A new study, Hiring Biases, funded by Led By Foundation and Maulana Azad National Urdu University in collaboration with Centre for Development of Policy and Practice, attempts to identify the bias in the hiring process disadvantaging Indian Muslim women and the extent to which it affects those seeking entry level jobs.
This story was originally published in mid-day.com . Read the full story here