Harvard Business Review explains to Times of India the difficulty in hiring Muslim candidate 'Habiba'

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Jul 10, 2022 at 13:18

Dear Dr Pipes,

More and more of the media in free countries is being taken over by the leftist blame-everyone-else-but-yourself crowd. Currently, an oft-repeated pattern is to send two identical honey trap resumes with different names to multiple employers and 'measure' how often they get picked for hiring by the employers. This pattern has been used in the USA to 'prove' that black-sounding names are less likely to be picked. This, to the experimenters, proves that there is discrimination against black people in America. This may or may not be true and is not my primary concern in this message.

Whenever there is an opportunity to fish in the troubled waters, Islamic opportunists oblige. Times of India (TOI) used the above 'experiment' to prove that there was discrimination against Muslim women in India (Ref1). The TOI article suggested that people are more likely to hire someone with a Hindu name (Priyanka) than someone with a Muslim name (Habiba).

I do not fully deny that Indian corporations might have a bias against Muslim women -- specially until they meet the candidate--. But I also think that 'Habiba' the Muslim candidate might bring some additional challenges to the workplace for the employers. A 'manifesto' authored by a Muslim woman about what needs to be done to accommodate Muslim female employees was recently published by HBR (ref2: Hira Ali's long list of demands from employers for Muslim employees).

If the authors of the Times of India article meet the author of the HBR article, the issue can be resolved between them without any need for either publication. As Hira Ali recommends, when an employer hires a Muslim woman they will have to do many more things: 1. Accommodate for her special dietary needs 2. Provide her with a special room for prayers 3. Change their schedule to meet hers, about a thousand times in a year 4. Invite her family members to the workplace so she feels 'included'. 5. Apologize for and with her when Islamic terrorists strike. 6. Agree to use the euphemism 'Islam related violence' for 'Islamic Terrorism' as Hira Ali does. 7. May need to accommodate a Hijab or Burkha clad woman if Habiba insisted on wearing one, knowing fully well that in Islam Hijab etc are optional. For the entire manifesto and for Hira Ali's innocent tone, I strongly recommend reading the HBR article. This is in addition to the fact that in Habiba the employer might get an employee who 'wants to take her religion to every door'.

I want the Times of India apologists to know (in good conscience) that I would rather hire Priyanka and pass Habiba and not go through so much trouble! It is not for nothing that candidates and employees who show flexibility at the time of interviewing and after get hired. Ms. 'Habiba' should know it.

Ref1: https://m.timesofindia.com/india/priyanka-or-habiba-who-would-you-hire/articleshow/92573342.cms

Ref2: https://hbr.org/2022/07/how-leaders-can-better-support-muslim-women-at-work

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