Air France staff furious over new Islamic headscarf dress code

OUTRAGED female flight attendants are threatening mutiny after they were told they have to put on headscarves before flying into Iran.

Air France is facing backlash after it told its female cabin crew to wear pants and headscarves on flights to Iran.

AIR France staff are threatening mutiny after the airline told its female cabin crew they had to put on headscarves before flying into Iran.

Furious staff have accused Air France of attacking individual freedoms after the dress code was announced ahead of the resumption of flights to the Iranian capital of Tehran next month. In an internal email, Air France said female cabin crew had to wear pants during the flight and put on a “loose-fitting jacket and headscarf” before disembarking the plane when it arrived in the strict Islamist country. Union groups have strongly condemned the dress new code and say cabin crew will refuse to fly when flights resume to Tehran on April 17. “They are forcing us to wear an ostentatious religious symbol,” union leader Françoise Redolfi told RFI radio. “We have to let the girls choose what they want to wear. Those that don’t want to must be able to say they don’t want to work on those flights. “Many female members of flight crews have told us that it’s out of the question they be obliged to wear headscarves. “It’s not professional and they see it as an insult to their dignity.” Flore Arrighi, head of the UNAC flight crews’ union, said: “It is not our role to pass judgment on the wearing of headscarves or veils in Iran. “What we are denouncing is that it is being made compulsory. Stewardesses must be given the right to refuse these flights,” she continued, adding that female staff were entitled to exercise “individual freedoms���. UNAC has written to the French minister for women’s rights and families, Laurence Rossignol, to complain about the uniform instructions. Christophe Pillet, from the SNPNC union and Air France’s staff committee, said the new dress code had sparked alarm among staff. “Every day we have calls from worried female cabin crew who say they do not want to wear the headscarf,” he told AFP. Pillet added Air France management had raised the possibility of penalties against staff who refused to follow the dress code. Women in Iran have been instructed to cover their heads since the Islamic revolution in 1979, while in secular France, headscarves have been banned in schools and state offices and full-face veils are banned in public areas. In a statement, Air France said: “Iranian law requires the wearing of a veil covering the hair in public places for all women present on its territory. This obligation is not required during the flight and is respected by all international airlines serving the Iranian Republic.” The airline will begin three daily fights between Paris and Tehran on April 17, eight years after the flights were suspended in light of crippling international sanctions against Tehran. Those sanctions were lifted in January after Iran agreed to shrink its nuclear program.