Sweden — A 20-year-old Malmo woman has been awarded damages after she was asked to leave a bus for wearing a veil.
The woman has received 25,000 kronor ($4,203) from public bus service operator Arriva after an agreement was reached with the Ombudsman against ethnic discrimination (DO), according to local newspaper Sydsvenskan.
The woman was instructed to leave the bus in the southern Swedish city when she refused to remove the niqab veil that she was wearing as part of her sartorial hijab headdress. The niqab covers the entire face except for eyes.
The bus driver had asked the woman to remove her niqab so that he could identify her, however the woman was using a buss pass that did not require identification.
“The bus driver has not acted according to Arriva’s values. There is no doubt where the fault lies and this is most regrettable. We are happy to pay out the money to make up for it,” said Jan Wildau at Arriva.
As a result of the incident the bus driver, who was employed on an hourly basis, no longer works for Arriva.