Wa alaikome salam
Brother my hat is off to you for having the courage to post such a thread! I have had such embarrassment because of my beginning into Islam! The entire first year and a half after taking my shahada I lived in the USA and was too afraid to wear hijab! I had a son that depended on me for support you see and I could not afford to lose my job! I was afraid.
Then my first Ramadan as a Muslim I was alone in a place where I didnt know any other Muslims nearby. All of my family were respectful of my change but none of them understood or was going through it with me so I had really never felt so alone in my life. I decided that I would wear hijab for the first time in my life and wear it proudly in honor of my first Ramadan! Yep I did it! I held 2 jobs at the time and on my first job there was a dress code so of course I couldnt wear anything covering my head but my second job was at a call center just answering phones and none of the clients actually came in so nobody would see me except the people that I worked with. They all knew I was Muslim so I thought it would be ok. Yeah right......by the time Ramadan was in its 2nd week I was fired!!!!! They made up some lame excuse of course because its against the law to fire someone on the basis of religious discrimination and I had the right to wear my hijab but I got fired just the same! It didnt matter the excuse they used because I knew the real reason was because I wore hijab at work! Of course there was no way to prove that was the reason they fired me so I had to just accept the fact that my son and I had to live on my part time job until I could find another good job! I went from making 500 dollars per week down to 180 dollars per week so you can see that it really hurt me losing that job!!!
After being fired I took the hijab off and never wore it again for the rest of the time I lived in the USA! I finally found a new job that even allowed me to quit my other first job and work for just one employer! My new employer happened to be Muslim alhamdulillah!!!! He even knew the reason I was fired from that other job yet one day he came to me and asked me NOT to wear hijab while I am at work due to his fear of losing customers!!!!! He said people are afraid of Muslims and he was afraid of losing their business if they saw me wearing hijab!
Now I am living in an Islamic country and I am proudly wearing hijab all the time but I have to say its easy for me to do that here where almost every woman is wearing hijab! The question is if I should return to the USA would I have the courage? The answer is I just dont know!
Good luck to you on your job hunt my brother and may Allah bless you with a good job very soon inshallah!
wa salam
As-salam alaykom sister,
Thanks for replying. I understand where you are coming from. I used to work for AT&t as a line technician making almost $1500 a week and had great benefits. They fired me because I turned to Islam. I can't prove it, but everything they told me does not add up.
I was given an evaluation two times a year on my performance, and have always met or exceeded expectations. They upper management called me and told me they are going to separate me from the company because my performance was low. I was completely shocked. I have been trying to get into this company for so long. I was just trying to follow in my grand father, and my fathers foot steps. Since they have both worked for this company all their lives.
I even filed for unemployment and was granted it. After I had already received about $3000 AT&t challenged the unemployment and they won so I had to pay back all the money I was given. They told the unemployment officer that I was maliciously trying to hurt the company. Which is far from true. I had a better repair record than most of the guys in the crew I was part of.
Anyway, I am now working part time making $194 a week. I dont even make enough to pay for our car note.
But I believe, and I know Allah has a plan for me. So I try to be the best Muslim I can.
Thanks
Dawud
