A trainee solicitor awarded £110,000 after being told to "remove her headscarf to attract men"

A Muslim paralegal has won a £110,000 payout in a sexual harassment case after her male colleague told her to ‘attract men’ by taking off her headscarf.

Trainee solicitor Forida Kaiser received the ‘advice’ from lawyer Imitiaz Ahmed, which left her ‘insulted and embarrassed’, her employment tribunal heard.

Ms Kaiser believed Mr Ahmed was suggesting that she ‘would not be able to find a husband’ if she wore her headscarf.

In another incident, Ahmed heard Kaiser and a client discussing ‘personal matters’, and stood up and pointed at the door declaring: ‘If you’re so into it, you should go elsewhere.’

Ms Kaiser successfully sued Khans Solicitors for £110,000 at an employment tribunal.

She began working for the firm, which is based in Canary Wharf, in April 2019 as a paralegal after being declared bankrupt following her divorce.

Khan Solicitors specialises in divorce, wills and immigration, and is ‘predominantly a Muslim business’, the employment tribunal heard.

Conveyancing specialist Imitiaz Ahmed had seen a photograph of Ms Kaiser without her headscarf on, and told her ‘if she did not wear a headscarf, she could attract men’, the panel heard.

The tribunal said: ‘Ms Kaiser was insulted and embarrassed and thought that he was suggesting that she would not be able to find a husband if she kept her scarf on.

‘Mr Ahmed knew that her marriage had ended.’

Ms Kaiser also suffered from numerous medical conditions, including glaucoma and fibromyalgia, the tribunal also heard.

To accommodate these additional needs, she requested a larger computer screen and a comfortable chair to ease her pain, but her needs were not met.

Ms Kaiser’s conditions were commented on by numerous colleagues who would point out ‘how much medication she needed’, and after she refused to move some furniture was told ‘you will not die so you better not give me any excuses’ by a fellow colleague.

Following the tribunal, Ms Kaiser’s claims of sex harassment and discrimination, disability discrimination, unfair dismissal, unauthorised deductions from wages, and breach of contract all succeeded, while her additional claim of race discrimination failed.

Speaking of the case, employment Judge Julia Jones said: ‘As a practising Muslim man, Mr Ahmed would have known that modesty in dress is important to Ms Kaiser as a Muslim woman and that he was likely to insult her by the suggestion that she needed to go against her beliefs in order to attract a man.

‘Ms Kaiser was being professional in speaking to a client and the suggestion that there was anything else going on hurt her feelings deeply.

‘She felt disrespected and insulted by the comments.

‘It is our judgement that both comments were particularly offensive to her as a Muslim woman and that Mr Ahmed would have known that.

‘He would have been aware of how insulting, humiliating and offensive it would be to suggest that she should go off with a strange man.’

Elizabeth Baker