An Egyptian trainee doctor was fired by a French hospital not for any performance-related reasons, but for his beard, which the hospital designated as a "religious" symbol.
The doctor, known only as Mohamed A., was sacked from Saint-Denis Hospital in France four months into his internship. This, however, took place back in 2014, even before laws in France were passed regarding the restrictions for religious symbols in secular establishments and institutions, particularly hospitals. The French court has only passed such laws last month on Dec. 19, 2017, meaning whatever case Mohamed has been building up against the hospital will be nullified due to the recent law.
Mohamed's lawyer, Nawel Gafsia, even argued that his beard did not necessarily reflect or indicate his religious practices. For all everyone knew, he "could have been a hipster," according to the lawyer, though this was not enough to overturn the hospital's decision. Mohamed also never openly identified as a Muslim either and simply had a beard.
The hospital officials argued that they did warn Mohamed weeks prior to his being fired to shave or at least trim his beard so that patients would not see it as a religious symbol. Moreso, they indicated that Mohamed himself did not deny that his beard was likely to indicate conspicuously a religious conviction, which was seen as incompatible with the principles of secularity and neutrality of the public service.
Oddly enough, the 35-year-old doctor was allowed a transfer to Paul Brousse Hospital in France as well, where he managed to complete his course with no objections to his beard. This led Ms. Gafsia to conclude that the problem lied within the personal judgment of the director of Saint-Louis Hospital, and so he called the attention of a group called Collective Against Islamophobia in France.
Gafsia then went on to state that the decision was scandalous, discriminatory, and mind-boggling years ago and now even more so due to the recent decision of the French Court. "He is called 'Mohammed'. If he was called 'Lionel Dupont', he could have had an even longer beard and there would have been no problem," she expressed and even state that a beard should not be indicative of a person's religious affiliation.
