French Court Fine Restaurant Owners For Prohibiting Muslim Women

Illustration. (Pexels/Ekaterina Bolovtsova)

JAKARTA - A French court fined a restaurant owner in southwestern France for banning the entry of a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf.

A court in Bayonne City, Basque's area ruled that the 64-year-old restaurant owner's woman was guilty of religious discrimination for asking customers to remove her headscarf.

The incident occurred on Mother's Day in July, when the Muslim woman went to the restaurant to have dinner with her son.

Footage obtained during the incident showed the mother and son arriving at the restaurant door, and the woman who owns the business said she would not let either customer enter the restaurant because her mother was wearing a headscarf, reported by the Daily Sabah December 2.

The restaurant owner, believed to be a Christian for wearing a cross around his neck, claims "the headscarf is a tool to beat women" to his Muslim client, which he later refused to enter.

Customers who claimed to be shocked by the words addressed to them went to the police station and filed a complaint on the grounds that they received discrimination treatment.

The woman who came with her son to the restaurant said she had been "embarrated" when she was rejected by the restaurant.

"It really hurts me. Now I always have this fear when I go to a restaurant," he said in court, citing rf.

Meanwhile, the restaurant owner, who was born in Spain but is a French citizen, was fined 600 euros for his refusal. He was also ordered to pay 1,300 euros for the moral losses suffered by his customers and son.

Not only that, he will be asked to take a citizenship training course "to study the values of the republic".

His lawyer said his client, who denies racism or Islamophobia, did not rule out an appeal against the ruling.