Woman kicked out of bank in US for wearing hijab

May 15, 2017

New York, May 15: A Muslim-American woman was allegedly kicked out of a bank in the US for 'wearing a hijab' - with staff threatening to call police if she did not 'remove her hood'.

hijab1Jamela Mohamed had gone into a branch of Sound Credit Union in Washington state on Friday to make a car payment.

Jamela, an American and a member of the credit union, recorded part of the incident on her mobile phone, claiming it shows blatant 'discrimination'.

She said she had been wearing a sweater and had the hood up because it was a Friday, which is when Muslims offer weekly prayers in the afternoon.

The teller asked Jamela, to take off her hood.

A sign inside the credit union says hats, hoods and sunglasses are not allowed, ABC-affiliated television station KOMO-TV reported.

Jamela said she was following the policy so she went to her car to grab her headscarf, or hijab. She went back in with her scarf, while still wearing her hood, the report said.

While she was waiting, Jamela says she took some video of the sign and of two male customers wearing baseball caps because they were being helped without any issues.

"Why am I witnessing a man being serviced with a hat on and I'm being told to take off my hood?" she asked.

"This is my hood. My face is showing and so I currently do have an issue today. I'm being polite, I'm complying. I simply stated that I just need to pay my car note today."

She talked to a teller again. Then, a credit union supervisor approached her.

Jamela took cellphone video showing the branch supervisor counting to three and then saying she was going to call 911.

"I didn't even get to utter a word," Jamela said.

That's right after the supervisor told her to remove her hijab. "You have to take your hood off!" said the woman in the video.

Jamela was left in tears after being allegedly kicked out of the bank. "I feel so embarrassed right now," she said.

Sharing the video of her ordeal on Facebook, she wrote: "I never want this to happen to anybody and NOBODY should ever be treated this way. Thank you."

Sound Credit Union later posted on its Facebook page saying it did not handle the situation well, is apologising, and will make sure it never happens again.

"It is clear our training needs to include more empathy and sensitivity to all cultures, because as a credit union, we believe in equal treatment of all people,"

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News Network
July 10,2020

Lahore, Jul 10: The Punjab government enforced smart lockdown in seven cities of the province for 15 days with an immediate effect from Thursday night, The News International reported.

The Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department on Thursday issued a notification under the Punjab Infectious Diseases Ordinance 2020, about enforcement of lockdown in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat and Rawalpindi, till July 24 midnight.

In Lahore, the lockdown will be enforced in A2 Block Township, EME Society, Main Bazaar Chungi Amr Sadhu, Punjab Government Servants Housing Scheme, Wapda Town, C-Block Jauhar Town and Green City.

The basic necessities of life will remain available in smart lockdown areas. "The purpose of the smart lockdown is to minimise movement of people in hotspots of positive coronavirus cases," said Capt (retd) Muhammad Usman, Secretary, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department.

The country registered 2,751 new COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 243,599 on Friday. The province-wise breakup includes 85,261 cases in Punjab, 100,900 cases in Sindh, 29,406 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11,099 in Balochistan, 13,829 in Islamabad, 1,619 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 1,485 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The death toll due to the virus reached 5,058 with 75 more deaths reported over the last 24 hours, as per data cited by Radio Pakistan.

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News Network
June 17,2020

Vienna, Jun 17: Austrian police fined a man 500 euros for loudly breaking wind after officers stopped him earlier this month to check his identity.

The police defended the massive fine saying he had deliberately emitted a "massive flatulence," lifting his backside from the bench where he was sitting.

The accused complained of what he called the disproportionate and unjustified fine when he gave his account of the June 5 events on the O24 news website.

In reply to social media commentaries that followed, the police in the Austrian capital justified their reaction on Twitter.

"Of course, nobody is put on the spot if one slips out by accident," the police said.

However, in this case, the police said, the young man had appeared "provocative and uncooperative" in general.

He then "slightly raised himself from the bench, looked at the officers and patently, in a completely deliberate way, emitted a massive flatulence in their immediate proximity."

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Agencies
March 31,2020

Months after the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan city of central China, families of those deceased, who contracted the contagious infection, stood in long queues at funeral homes demanding to receive the cremated ashes of their loved ones.

Now this has spurred questions about the actual tally of COVID-19 related casualties in Wuhan, in a renewed pressure on the Chinese government that is already struggling to control its containment narrative of the pandemic spread.

Chinese media outlet Caixin showed how trucks carrying 2,500 urns with the ashes of the deceased COVID-19 cases were being shipped in a funeral home last week. Another picture published revealed how 3,500 urns were stacked within these funeral homes. It is therefore unclear how many urns have been filled in.

According to media reports, workers at several funeral parlors declined to provide any details as to how many urns were waiting to be collected, saying they either did not know or were not authorised to share the number.

Some families said they had been forced to wait for several hours to pick up the ashes. The photos circulated as mass deaths from the virus spiked in cities across the west, including Milan, Madrid and New York, where hospitals were erecting tents to handle the overflow as global infections soar past 500,000, with 24,000 dead.

According to Chinese government figures, 2,535 people in Wuhan have died of the virus. The announcement that a lockdown in place since January would be lifted came after the country said its tally of new cases had hit zero and stepped up diplomatic outreach to other countries hard hit by the virus, sending some of them medical supplies.

But some in China have been skeptical of the accuracy of the official tally, particularly given Wuhan's overwhelmed medical system, authorities' attempts to cover up the outbreak in its initial stages, and multiple revisions to the way official cases are counted.

Residents on social media have demanded disciplinary action against top Wuhan officials.

Many people who died had Covid-19 symptoms, but weren't tested and excluded from the official case tally, Caixin said. There were also patients who died of other diseases due to a lack of proper treatment when hospitals were overwhelmed dealing with those who had the coronavirus.

There were 56,007 cremations in Wuhan in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to data from the city's civil affairs agency. The number of cremations was 1,583 higher than those in the fourth quarter of 2018 and 2,231 higher than the fourth quarter of 2017.

Two locals in Wuhan who have lost family members to the virus said online that they were informed they had to be accompanied by their employers or officials from neighborhood committees when picking up the urns, likely as a measure against public gatherings.

COVID-19 is affecting 199 countries and territories around the world. Over 664,000 coronavirus cases have been registered globally out of which 30,890 have succumbed to the infection.

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