Screengrab shows the Black Muslim woman breaking into tears after facing discrimination at a US bank.
An American Muslim woman has alleged she was kicked out of bank branch in Washington for observing hijab and as the staffers threatened calling the police if she didn’t remove her hood.
Jamela Mohamed, a Black Muslim, recorded her experience in a video clip when she said she was discriminated against at a branch of Sound Credit Union whose staffers refused to serve her.
In the video recorded on May 5, 2017, a senior official can be seen and heard yelling at her, saying that she will call the police if Jamela did not remove her hood. The Muslim woman’s face was clearly visible but she claims she had to face the ‘blatant discrimination’.
"If you don't take your hood off, I'm calling 911," the staffer shouts at her.
Immediately after she shared her experience on social media, Sound Credit Union apologised for its behaviour towards Jamela and said it is "actively investigating" the matter.
https://www.facebook.com/jamela.mohamed.148/videos/1922056294699114/
The video further shows how the officials at the bank kept on serving men with hoods and caps on but didn’t treat Jamela equally.
She asks them: "Why am I witnessing a man being serviced with a hat on and I’m being told to take off my hood? This is my hood. My face is showing and so I currently do have an issue today.”
In a calm manner, she keeps questioning them but in vain.
"I’m being polite, I’m complying. I simply stated that I just need to pay my car note today.”
As she leaves the bank, Jamela breaks down in tears and can be heard saying, "I feel so embarrassed right now."
Later on, the Muslim woman wrote a post on her Facebook hoping that nobody has to go through what she had to put up with.
"I never want this to happen to anybody and NOBODY should ever be treated this way for wearing a hood — even as other customers were allowed to wear head coverings," she wrote.
"I am a Black Muslim woman and was observing Jummah, so I had my hood on,” Jamela explained the reason for her wearing the hood.
Jamela’s attorney, Thaddeus Martin, has said their only issue with the management is why she was treated unequally at the bank and not with the rule which forbade wearing hoods.
"She is seen as a threat and she's actually treated as a threat,” Martin was quoted as saying.
Further, the bank issued an apology statement and said investigations were underway to take necessary actions against the individual involved.
"As a credit union, we believe in equal treatment for all. We are revisiting our procedures and training to do everything we possibly can to prevent a situation like this from happening again. Our management team is actively investigating the incident to gather all the facts and circumstances,” the statement said.
"Until a full investigation is complete, we cannot comment further about the individuals involved,” it added.
The article originally appeared on Mirror
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