31 January 2017

Dentist must pay 29k for allegedly ordering Muslim woman assistant to not wear hijab at work

A Cook County judge has ordered a Chicago dentist to pay an ex-employee, who is a Muslim woman, and her attorneys a combined sum of nearly $30,000, after the judge found the Chicago Council on Human Relations was correct to find the dentist had improperly ordered her to remove her hijab head covering while at work.

On Jan. 19, Cook County Judge Rodolfo Garcia ruled in favor of the Chicago commission, and against Dr. Dhiraj Sharma, who had asked the judge to vacate the commission’s findings the dentist had discriminated against the woman.

The case had landed in Cook County Circuit Court in January 2016, when Sharma, owner of American Dental Associates in Chicago, had asked the judge to intervene in his dispute with the Chicago Human Rights Commission.

Sharma had claimed the Commission didn’t properly allow him to defend himself against the accusations leveled by his ex-employee, identified in the court documents as Mirta Barrera. [Cook County Record] Read more