source: http://michellemalkin.com/2008/06/17/minnesota-muslim-oppressed-by-pants/

Fatuma Hassan has just enough rice in her near-empty cupboards to make
it through the month. The anger she felt when she lost her job in May
has given way to a dull, nagging hunger.

Yet this soft-spoken 22-year-old became an unlikely hero within the
Somali community when she and five of her Muslim co-workers were
dismissed last month from the Mission Foods tortilla factory in New
Brighton, Minn., for refusing to wear a new company uniform — a shirt
and pants — they consider a violation of their Islamic beliefs.

“For me, wearing pants is the same as being naked,” Hassan said,
noting the prophet Mohammed taught that men and women should not dress
alike. “My culture, my religious beliefs, are more important than a
uniform.”

There’s actually quite a litigious Somali subculture in Minnesota, as
we’ve observed with the Minneapolis airport taxi-driver disputes. And
then there was that TIZA thing last month. True to form, CAIR has
picked this up, and will sue Mission foods on their behalf.

So Mission can either continue to ban unsafe, loose-fitting, but
culturally sensitive clothing and be sued and slandered by CAIR, or
they can give in and take a hit from a personal-injury lawyer when a
burqa-clad employee gets tangled up in an industrial tortilla press.
Tough decision.

The article goes on to discuss issues of immigration and assimilation,
and the pressure Somalis feel to avoid the latter. Don’t become
Americanized, they are told at home.

It looks like the indoctrination’s working, and with CAIR’s help
they’re trying to Somalize Minnesota instead.

Meanwhile you’ll be relieved to know that California’s governmental
code specifically memorializes workers’ rights to wear pants to work,
regardless of their sex.