The manager of a Geox store in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) was threatened with death after the publication of a video that went viral on social networks this Thursday. In this five-minute long sequence, viewed more than a million times on X and TikTok, the latter seems to refuse a young temporary woman to work because she is wearing a veil.
The man is talking on the phone with an unknown person, who appears to be one of his superiors. “I'm calling you because (the young temporary woman, Editor's note) has just arrived, and the outfit is not going to the store. She has a veil and does not want to take it off. She tells me that this is not normal, that it is not written in the contract. (…) She doesn’t plan to stay,” he said.
The young woman, who is filming the scene, then cuts off the manager. “No, it’s not that I don’t plan to stay. You tell me to leave, you distort my words,” she is indignant, calling out in passing to a customer who seems to have entered the store. On her TikTok account with nearly 2,000 subscribers, where she broadcast the sequence, she describes herself as an “inspiring Muslim woman” who “embraces the hijab”.
The merchant then asks the young woman to leave the premises. “You are not a police officer to tell me where I should stand,” she retorts, indicating that she will not leave the store before the end of the phone call. “I don’t want you to change my words,” she explains, asking the trader to contact the temp agency.
Attack on secularism?
The manager then repeats the reason for his refusal. “You don’t have the right outfit, I can’t keep you,” he said. “I have the veil, you have to say it, you have to use the words,” replies the young woman. “We're in France, ma'am, it's in the law,” explains the trader, while the temporary worker says tersely, “Liberty, equality, fraternity,” referring to the fact that France is a “secular country.” .
In the terms of her contract, says the young Muslim woman, “it is not written that I must not wear the veil”. The manager then retorts: “I have a colleague who has a cross around her neck and she doesn’t show it either.” Other exchanges follow, the manager notably telling the young woman that she is in a “private place”. The phone call then ends, and the young woman leaves the scene, urging the merchant to “change his mentality”.
Contacted by Le Parisien, the Geox company has still not responded to our requests at the time of writing these lines. Since the publication of the video, hundreds of hate messages have been published on social networks against the manager, whose behavior is considered Islamophobic. Many Internet users have, conversely, expressed their support for the merchant, congratulating him for upholding secularism.