Chipotle is being sued by a federal agency accusing it of religious harassment and retaliation after its claimed a manager at a Kansas location of the the restaurant chain forcibly removed an employee's hijab, a headscarf worn by some Muslim women.
According to The Daily Mail, in a lawsuit filed lsat week the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged how in 2021, an assistant manager at a Chipotle in Lenexa, Kansas, Kevin Silva Garcia, repeatedly harassed the employee, Areej Saifan, by asking her to show him her hair, despite her refusal.
After several weeks, the harassment culminated in him grabbing and partially removing her hijab, according to the complaint.
The manager's 'offensive and incessant requests' that she remove her hijab, and his attempt to physically take it off, were 'unwelcome, intentional, severe, based on religion, and created a hostile working environment based on religion,' the complaint alleges.
Chipotle ultimately fired Garcia while Saifan also filed a report to Lenexa Police.
Photo: SDI Productions / E+ / Getty Images