Religious discrimination in Denmark: New Muslim women and their children suffer

The young Danish woman, Karina, lost her job at a gas station and a pizza restaurant owned by Muslims in Copenhagen after she converted to Islam. The owners expressed fear and informed her that they couldn’t keep her employed due to the importance they placed on outward appearance. Karina had anticipated such reactions, having previously been expelled from her family home when she started wearing the hijab. She described the discussions at home after her decision as racist, leaving her feeling that the future wouldn’t be easy.

Fear for her future led Karina to stop wearing the hijab after her conversion to Islam, fearing difficulty in finding employment and concerns about discrimination. She explained, “The job market isn’t accustomed to veiled women, let alone Danish ones.” Some regard these women as “traitors” for their conversion to Islam, echoing comments that aim to psychologically undermine veiled women.

Similar discrimination befell Danish citizen Fatima (formerly Christina), who was verbally assaulted outside a café by a man attempting to forcibly remove her hijab. This incident falls under Denmark’s anti-racism law, Article 266, which punishes racial discrimination and harassment with fines or up to two years in prison, according to Eva Maria Lassen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

In the past year, hate crimes in Denmark have escalated, prompting criticism against intelligence services, police, and the Ministry of Justice for not publishing hate crime reports. The Danish Statistics Center acknowledges that they lack specific numbers for hate crimes from the previous year, relying on police and Justice Ministry reports that have been withheld for unspecified reasons since February 2016.

According to official reports from the past two years, most hate crimes in Denmark are committed by native Danes against other ethnicities. The Danish Institute for Human Rights confirms that many cases of discrimination and hate crimes go unreported, thus not included in official statistics.

Denmark’s laws prohibit and criminalize discrimination based on origin, skin color, religion/belief, political background, sexual orientation, national or social origin. However, as observed by a UN delegation led by Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, some companies engage in indirect structural discrimination. They impose dress codes that exclude veiled Muslim women and Sikhs, while others screen job applications based on racial origin.

The National Center for Combating Discrimination warns against what it terms as indirect systemic discrimination, where some companies intentionally set dress code requirements that exempt veiled Muslim women and Sikhs, while others segregate job applications based on racial origin.