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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-muslim-women-71-more-likely-to-be-unemployed-due-to-workplace-discrimination-10179033.html - Also Via Human Rights Without Frontiers
UK – Muslim Women 71% More Likely to Be Unemployed - Workplace Discrimination - Survey
Unemployment rate among Muslim women is 18
per cent, according to the survey - Getty Images
Emily Dugan – Social
Affairs Editor – 15 April 2015
Discrimination against Muslim women in the workplace
means they are much more likely to be unemployed than white Christian women -
even when they have the same qualifications and language skills - research
shows.
British Muslim women are around 70 per cent more likely
to be looking unsuccessfully for work, according to the University of Bristol’s
Dr Nabil Khattab, who spoke at the British Sociological Association’s annual
conference in Glasgow.
The recent National Labour Force survey showed the
unemployment rate among Muslim women was 18 per cent, compared with 9 per cent
for Hindu women and 4 per cent for white Christian women. This has previously
been attributed to Muslim women being less well educated and less fluent in
English, but Dr Khattab says his data shows the discrepancy is also likely to
be explained by employer discrimination.
Dr Khattab analysed a sample of 2,643 from the national
Labour Force survey to compare the rates of those looking for work without
success. He adjusted the sample in order to compare women with similar
educational level and language abilities and controlled for marital status,
children and strength of religious belief.
He found that Muslim women were 71 per cent
more likely than white Christian women to be unemployed, even when they had the
same educational level and language skills. Hindu women were 57 per cent more
likely to be unemployed than white Christian women.
“Economic activity among Muslim women in
the UK remains considerably lower and their unemployment rate remains
significantly higher than the majority group even after controlling for
qualifications and other individual characteristics,” Dr Khattab said.
He added that the conspicuousness of Muslim
women’s religious background was likely to be a key factor in explaining their
exclusion. “They wear the hijab or other religious symbols which makes them
more visible and as such exposed to greater discrimination.”