Gay Air France Flight Attendants Refuse to Fly to Iran (Iran executes gays)
These Fly Attendants are not refusing to fly to Iran because they fear death, even though on their overnight stays someone could get entangle in a gay friendship and then who knows; Rather they are making a universal complaint to bring attention how these religious countries do execute gays. If you asked any GOP supporter and many on the opposite side of gay rights in the US, if gays are being executed today they will say no way. If they only knew Iran. Saudi Arabia and Egypt just to name the worse three we know. Maybe then they will have a change of mind and maybe recognize that England use to jail gays (in our boomers generation and prior) and in the US you will be left without a job, apartment or house and will probably be executed by fellow citizens, which they still do today. Adam
Air France flight attendants or hostesses or Stewards as they are still called in France, didn’t want to wear veils when getting off the plane in Iran, now gay stewards don’t want to go to a country where homosexuals could face the death penalty.
A steward from Air France has launched an online appeal against gay cabin members having to travel to Iran. It's titled: "Gay stewards from Air France don't want to fly to the death penalty in Iran".
"Sure, our sexuality isn't written on our passports and it doesn't change the way we work as a crew," wrote 'Laurent M' in an open letter to the French government and the CEO of Air France Frédéric Gagey.
"But it is inconceivable to force someone to go to a country where his kind are condemned for who they are."
The letter points out that homosexuality in Iran is illegal and comes with a penalty of 74 lashes for a minor, while adults can be given the death penalty.
A petition on site Change.org which calls for gay stewards not to work on the soon to re-open Paris to Tehran route has gained almost 2,000 signatures in the past few days.
The letter comes just one week after Air France hostesses and female pilots refused to fly on the Paris to Tehran route because they didn't want to be forced to wear a veil and loose trousers.
The airline eventually found a compromise with unions after the story gained international media attention. In the end, Air France accepted that stewardesses could refuse to work on the Tehran route without facing punishment.
Air France suspended flights to Iran in 2008 but is resuming the service next week after international sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme were lifted.
The company pointed out that the same headscarf rule was already in place when flying to certain destinations, such as Saudi Arabia, a country which also has the death penalty for anyone caught carrying out homosexual acts.
It remains unknown what effect the new petition will have, not least because it doesn't have the same backing from the Unac union, which was heavily involved in the fight of the stewardesses.
A spokesperson from the union told the Metro newspaper that the notion of Air France staff avoiding flights to Tehran "has been tackled for the entire aircrew, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation".
The paper noted, however, that Air France management has so far only allowed the choice to refuse journeys to Iran to hostesses, and not stewards.
http://www.thelocal.fr
Origen of problems with Air France and the bending of our customs for theirs:
Air France recently notified its female flight attendants that they must wear company headscarves in Iran upon disembarking the plane at the end of the Paris-Tehran route. After employees complained to their union, Air France officials said on Monday female flight attendants will be allowed to opt out of the route and request a reassignment if they object to covering their hair in the Islamic nation.
In light of the airline’s plan to resume service to Tehran on April 17 after an eight-year suspension on political grounds, officials sent a memo to female staff about the route’s dress code, which includes pants and loose-fitting clothing in addition to the headscarf they must don when they step off the plane in Tehran. Flight attendants are usually able to choose between a skirt and pants when it comes to uniform dress, but the Tehran flight dress code predates the current conflict; it was codified Air France policy when the route was suspended in 2008. Before Air France yielded to its employees' demands by allowing them to opt out of working the Tehran flights, a union representative for the flight attendants said they were fine with wearing headscarves during their off-work time in Iran, but balked at the idea of being forced to wear them as part of their uniform.
This collision of religion, dress and employment is an interesting case study of what happens when a country with some of the world’s most hostile laws against Islamic traditions tries to do business in a country with some of the world’s most stringent Islamic laws. In France, it is illegal for women to wear religious headscarves at school and work, and face coverings like burqas and niqabs are banned in all public spaces. Meanwhile, since the Islamic Revolution, Iranian law has required that all women cover their legs to their ankles and cover their hair with a scarf. In most places, a loose head covering with the hairline and tendrils exposed is fine, and a law that would have beefed up enforcement of women’s dress codes was deemed unconstitutional last year. Still, even for foreign visitors, walking around in Iran without a head covering could be grounds for arrest, a steep fine, or a stern talking-to from Iranian police.
According to AFP, Air France said its employees are “obliged like other foreign visitors to respect the laws of the countries to which they travelled.” In Saudi Arabia, for instance, the same headscarf rule applies for all flight attendants, who must also wear legally mandated abayas, which are long, loose robes that stretch from neck to ankle. (The Economist reports that the Saudi law requiring headscarves is not enforced for foreign women. Air France still requires them for its employees.)
No company based in a secular democracy should force its employees to work in a place that legally requires them to wear clothing that runs counter to their religious, cultural, or social practices. Air France was right to offer its female flight attendants the right to refuse a Tehran assignment. But employers often set guidelines for what their employees cannot do while representing the company in uniform. “Disobeying the law” is usually one of them. Six young Iranians who made a parody of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” video were recently sentenced to 91 lashes and a year in prison for failing to wear headscarves and for dancing with members of the opposite sex, and Iran is not known for its kind treatment of foreign prisoners, nor for any measure of due process or leniency. Giving employees headscarves to wear while in uniform will keep the company from flouting Iranian law without imposing any extra financial obligation on its workers.
Now that the dispute between Air France and its female flight attendants has been settled, French lawmakers should take note of its implications. In the days after Air France announced its Tehran dress code, one flight attendant’s union contacted France’s minister for women’s rights and families, Laurence Rossignol, seeking support for their protest of the headscarf policy. Rossignol recently likened Muslim women who wear headscarves or veils to “American negroes who were in favor of slavery.” If she and other women’s rights advocates are so repelled by the idea of non-Muslim French women being forced to don a headscarf in an Islamic nation, they’d be wise to imagine how Muslim women feel when France forces them to take theirs off.
Christina Cauterucci @portmantina
Origen of problems with Air France and the bending of our customs for theirs:
Air France recently notified its female flight attendants that they must wear company headscarves in Iran upon disembarking the plane at the end of the Paris-Tehran route. After employees complained to their union, Air France officials said on Monday female flight attendants will be allowed to opt out of the route and request a reassignment if they object to covering their hair in the Islamic nation.
In light of the airline’s plan to resume service to Tehran on April 17 after an eight-year suspension on political grounds, officials sent a memo to female staff about the route’s dress code, which includes pants and loose-fitting clothing in addition to the headscarf they must don when they step off the plane in Tehran. Flight attendants are usually able to choose between a skirt and pants when it comes to uniform dress, but the Tehran flight dress code predates the current conflict; it was codified Air France policy when the route was suspended in 2008. Before Air France yielded to its employees' demands by allowing them to opt out of working the Tehran flights, a union representative for the flight attendants said they were fine with wearing headscarves during their off-work time in Iran, but balked at the idea of being forced to wear them as part of their uniform.
This collision of religion, dress and employment is an interesting case study of what happens when a country with some of the world’s most hostile laws against Islamic traditions tries to do business in a country with some of the world’s most stringent Islamic laws. In France, it is illegal for women to wear religious headscarves at school and work, and face coverings like burqas and niqabs are banned in all public spaces. Meanwhile, since the Islamic Revolution, Iranian law has required that all women cover their legs to their ankles and cover their hair with a scarf. In most places, a loose head covering with the hairline and tendrils exposed is fine, and a law that would have beefed up enforcement of women’s dress codes was deemed unconstitutional last year. Still, even for foreign visitors, walking around in Iran without a head covering could be grounds for arrest, a steep fine, or a stern talking-to from Iranian police.
According to AFP, Air France said its employees are “obliged like other foreign visitors to respect the laws of the countries to which they travelled.” In Saudi Arabia, for instance, the same headscarf rule applies for all flight attendants, who must also wear legally mandated abayas, which are long, loose robes that stretch from neck to ankle. (The Economist reports that the Saudi law requiring headscarves is not enforced for foreign women. Air France still requires them for its employees.)
No company based in a secular democracy should force its employees to work in a place that legally requires them to wear clothing that runs counter to their religious, cultural, or social practices. Air France was right to offer its female flight attendants the right to refuse a Tehran assignment. But employers often set guidelines for what their employees cannot do while representing the company in uniform. “Disobeying the law” is usually one of them. Six young Iranians who made a parody of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” video were recently sentenced to 91 lashes and a year in prison for failing to wear headscarves and for dancing with members of the opposite sex, and Iran is not known for its kind treatment of foreign prisoners, nor for any measure of due process or leniency. Giving employees headscarves to wear while in uniform will keep the company from flouting Iranian law without imposing any extra financial obligation on its workers.
Now that the dispute between Air France and its female flight attendants has been settled, French lawmakers should take note of its implications. In the days after Air France announced its Tehran dress code, one flight attendant’s union contacted France’s minister for women’s rights and families, Laurence Rossignol, seeking support for their protest of the headscarf policy. Rossignol recently likened Muslim women who wear headscarves or veils to “American negroes who were in favor of slavery.” If she and other women’s rights advocates are so repelled by the idea of non-Muslim French women being forced to don a headscarf in an Islamic nation, they’d be wise to imagine how Muslim women feel when France forces them to take theirs off.
Christina Cauterucci @portmantina
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