A fair choice for hijab wearers to make?

On the surface of the hijab discussions, it does not seem that a hijab-wearing woman is discriminated against if one thinks that the hijab is separable from her.

To most of the Muslim women who religiously and personally believe that it is not, they would face a career or life choice: Either choose a job other than nursing, or make a sacrifice.

On the one hand, the issue is about our society’s consensus on what we perceive as a suitable image for public service. On the other hand, we are saying that if women want to work in a certain job, they must conform to what society wants them to be.

Broadly speaking, race, culture, sexual orientation and so on are forms of “inseparable identifiers”, and we would not want members of our society to be discriminated based on these. To hijab wearers, their inseparable identifier happens to be physically separable.

We would also want equal and fair employment opportunities, and not societal barriers, for women and for everyone: Hijab wearers, women intending to have children, single mothers, people of different ethnicities, people of different socioeconomic classes and so on.

What we need is an institution that protects citizens from employment practices, in the public or private sector, that keep out people with a certain inseparable identifier, whether their gender, religious orientation and so on, without a serious practical reason to do so.

Singapore is a meritocracy, so let us give jobs to those who qualify and not tell our hijab wearers to choose another job if the hijab is inseparable to them.