By arthur Weinreb
Friday, October 20, 2006
Well, that depends upon which news you read, listen to or watch.
aishah azmi, 24, was employed as a teaching assistant (teaching English as a second language to 11-year-olds) in a school in Dewsbury in the north of England. almost a year ago, azmi was suspended from her job for refusing to remove her niqab, the Muslim veil that covers the entire face except for a slit across the eyes. It was not an insignificant fact that azmi was not wearing the veil when she applied for her position. Children had complained that they had trouble understanding her when she spoke through her veil.
Yesterday a British Employment Tribunal handed down its decision on her complaint. In no particular order, the tribunal found that she had been victimized at work and awarded damages to her in the amount of 1,100. as far as her actual suspension went, the tribunal dismissed her claims of discrimination and harassment (it seems difficult to believe how they could have found that she was victimized but not harassed).
These somewhat confusing set of facts in which azmi won and lost provides a perfect example to observe how the media spins facts to conform to their biases. This story is one that easily spun as either a win or a loss, depending on the view of the world that each particular media outlet has.
Headlines are important, especially on the Internet where people are likely to see many headlines without reading the article that follows. Reports of aishah azmi's tribunal decisions have been spun as either a win or a loss by the various media reports that are out there.
She won
"British Panel Reprimands School in Veil Dispute" -- Washington Post
"Teacher who refused to wear veil wins 1,100 for hurt feelings" -- Daily Telegraph
"Veil row assistant "victimized" -- BBC News
"Muslim wins veil lawsuit" -- Toronto Star
"Teaching assistant "victimized" for wearing veil, tribunal rules" -- Independent, U.K.
She lost
"Muslims "feel targeted" over veil -- Guardian
"Veil teacher loses case" -- Channel 4 News, U.K.
"U.K. veil teacher loses case" -- News 24 -- South africa
"Teacher loses veil discrimination case -- CNN International
Unless you actually believe that aishah azmi didn't care is she was discriminated against or not and only went to the Employment Tribunal to try and get some money, it is hard to understand how the decision in her case can be classified as a "win" as the headline in the Toronto Star said that it was. Surely the fact that her claims of discrimination were dismissed was more important and newsworthy than the fact that she was awarded money because it was found that she was victimized while being properly suspended. Then again, victimization is pretty well the standard theme of the Toronto newspaper.
as far as headlines around the world go, the Bill O'Reilly Memorial Fair and Balanced award should go to, of all places, the English language website of aljazeera.net that headlined the story:
"Teacher loses -- and wins in veil case"
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