Air France won't force air hostesses to wear veil

A legislation in Iran requires women to wear headscarves abiding by the faith and respecting the culture, however, the article below shows how cultural and legal issues affect the hospitality industry, i.e. Airlines.

Air France has moved to defuse a growing dispute by agreeing to make an exception for those hostesses and female pilots who refuse to fly from Paris to Tehran because they don't want to wear the veil.

France's national carrier has found a compromise agreement with unions after staff complained about having to wear the veil when on flights to Tehran, when they resume on April 17th.

The unions say company chiefs sent staff an internal memo saying that female cabin crew will be required to wear trousers during the flight with a loose fitting jacket and that they must put on a scarf covering their hair when they leave the plane.

Flore Arrighi of the Unac union said before the meeting that she was expecting the airline's head of human resources, Gilles Gateau, to come up with proposals to end the row.

The union says it wants the Tehran flights to be staffed on a voluntary basis and that any staff who refuse to fly to Iran due to the headscarf rule will not have pay deducted and the refusal will not be noted on their professional record.

And after the meeting it appeared that a compromise had been found with Air France declaring "an exception would be made".

Unac's Arrighi said: "We've been complaining to them for weeks but it took the media attention for things to move."

The headscarf rule is already in place when flying to certain destinations, such as Saudi Arabia.

An escape clause was also already in place for flights to Conakry in Guinea during the Ebola crisis last year and for services to Tokyo following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Caroline Rolland of the CGT union said if Air France refused the unions' proposals, cabin crew members will bend the rules by taking the day off claiming they have a sick child, or that they themselves are ill. In that case they would lose a day's salary.

"That's the price to pay for refusing," she said.

Air France told AFP on Friday that all air crew were "obliged, like other foreign visitors, to respect the laws of the countries to which they travelled".

"Iranian law requires that a veil covering the hair be worn in public places by all women on its territory.

"This obligation, which does not apply during the flight, is respected by all international airlines which fly to Iran," the airline said.

The company's HR director ruled out however introducing the same kind of compromise for other flights including those to Saudi Arabia.

Air France suspended flights to Iran in 2008 but is resuming the service after international sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme were lifted.

http://www.thelocal.fr/20160404/air-france-comprises-on-forcing-female-staff-to-wear-veil

Air France flight attendants in uproar over order to wear headscarves in Iran

A number of female Air France cabin crew staff are resisting an airline ruling that they should wear a headscarf when outside the plane in Tehran, according to a union representative.

Multiple flight crew unions are fighting back against the ruling, with at least one reaching out to a government minister in the hope that they would intervene.

The headscarf requirement and clothing limitations are "true threats to their dignity", the Union des Navigants de l'Aviation Civile (UNAC) wrote in a letter to Laurence Rossignol, France's minister for women’s rights and families, on Friday.

Another union, Syndicat National du Personnel Navigant Commercial (SNPNC), also denounced the provisions in a statement, calling them "an attack on freedom of conscience and individual freedoms, and invasion of privacy".

Union representatives have asked Air France to make working on flights to Tehran voluntary for female crew members who do not want to wear headscarves, without repercussions related to pay or schedules.

Women are required to cover their hair in Iran, which of course is not the case in secular France, although conversely face-covering veils are banned in the latter.

Air France is set to resume service to Tehran on April 17 after an eight-year break. The service was initially cut as part of international sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme. Following the 2015 nuclear deal struck between Iran, the US, France and several other countries, Air France announced it would once again fly to the tourist-hungry country.

Specifically, Air France's modesty rules require women to wear trousers during the flight from Paris to Tehran and a loose-fitting jacket and headscarf when they exit the plane. Those who don't comply could be penalised, said SNPNC spokesperson Christophe Pillet to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“It is not our role to pass judgment on the wearing of headscarves or veils in Iran," Flore Ariighi, head of the UNAC told UK newspaper The Telegraph. "What we are denouncing is that it is being made compulsory. Stewardesses must be given the right to refuse these flights.”

Air France told AFP that the headscarf rule was not new. It was in place before service to Tehran was cut in 2008.

"Iranian law requires that a veil covering the hair be worn in public places by all women on its territory," the airline said. "This obligation, which does not apply during the flight, is respected by all international airlines that fly to Iran."

According to the union letter to the government minister, Air France also asked its female flight attendants to refrain from smoking in public. Male attendants were not given the same order.

Air France has not responded to Mashable's request for comment.

This article was first published by Mashable

http://www.france24.com/en/20160403-air-france-flight-attendants-uproar-over-order-wear-headscarves-iran