CEO of Karachi firm removed after discriminating against hijab-wearing employee

KARACHI: The chief executive officer of a software house, Jawwad Kadir, was asked to give up his position on Friday upon the basis of discriminating against a hijab-wearing employee.

The well-known firm, Creative Chaos had come under public scrutiny following a thorough Facebook post that unveiled the encounter of discrimination with the employee, recruited days prior, on the grounds of her wearing a hijab.

Subsequent to the turmoil that broke out, the company issued a statement claiming that the hiring manager and the CEO had both violated the ethos of the company and 'had deep regret and were embarrassed at their poor judgment.'

"The board exercised our zero tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind and both of them are no longer part of Creative Chaos," read the statement.

Following the social media outburst, Kadir had issued an apology as well before he was asked to resign from his post as CEO.

The social media post had revealed that the employee was hired as the Associate Talent Acquisition Officer and was soon asked by her line manager to reconsider her choice of donning a hijab if she wished to continue with the organization, as "it would spoil the company's image."

"He told her that he couldn’t really do anything about it so my friend went to speak with the CEO to ask why they hired her in the first place if this was such a problem to which he responded very casually saying ‘yaar mein tou accept kar raha hun ghalti hogayi hum istarha k logon ko nahi rakhtay hain [I am accepting that it was a mistake since we don't hire such people]," read the post.

"When she asked him to write it all down in the termination letter he refused saying ‘ nahi yaar document hojaye ga ye tou’ [No, that would get documented] and asked her to write a resignation instead. Later that day her manager calls her and warns her against taking any legal action since she just graduated and this will ruin her career!!," it detailed further.