'The Real' Kicked Two Muslim Women Out of Its Front Row for Wearing Hijabs
The studio attempted to hide the women from the camera's view, just because of their religious veils.
The Real is a daytime talk show that celebrates diversity. With a host panel that includes Tamar Braxton, Loni Love, Adrienne Bailon, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry-Housley, women who are African-American, Latina, and Asian, it's not exactly a place you'd imagine a great deal of racial intolerance. But that's just what two Muslim women faced when attending a taping in February. The two women were originally seated in the front row, but a studio employee told them they couldn't due to their hijabs.
“Warner Bros. has no legal justification for removing the hijab-wearing women from the camera’s view,” said CAIR-LA Senior Civil Rights Attorney Fatima Dadabhoy. “No studio should maintain such a discriminatory policy that prohibits people wearing religious head coverings from being seen in its studio audiences. It’s especially baffling that this particular show would want to hide their visibly-Muslim viewers, when the show purports to cater to a wide-ranging audience with its diverse cast.”
As Jezebel points out, this is a show that once thought this was a great idea, so it doesn't always promote the most racial sensitivity.