http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jezebel.com.png http://jezebel.com/tag/religiousdiscrimination http://jezebel.com/tag/religiousdiscrimination Tahita Jenkins was fired from her job as a New York City bus driver when she refused to wear pants or culottes for religious reasons in May 2007. Now Jenkins is suing NYC Transit for religious discrimination. Jenkins is a Pentecostal whose strict religious beliefs prohibits women from wearing pants. Jenkins refused the option of wearing culottes which she saw as "just another form of pants" and even provided "proof" that her Church was against the bus driver's standard uniform (which apparently doesn't even have a modest calf-length skirt as an option). She was fired despite her religious explanation. Is giving someone the option of wearing a skirt really that big of a deal? Who even sees below the bus driver's waist when riding the bus? Even male postal workers are allowed to wear skirts. [NY Post]

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5032775&view=rss&microfeed=true 14-year-old Sarika Watkins-Singh, of Wales, has won a ruling that will allow her to wear the kara — a slim steel bracelet which a judge has ruled central to her Sikh faith — to school. Twice suspended for breaking her school's "no jewellery" rule, Sarika, of mixed Welsh and Punjabi origin, had ultimately withdrawn. Today, the judge declared that the school was guilty of indirect discrimination under race relations and equality laws. The ruling, while significant, will likely not have larger implications. "To most people the kara looks like a piece of jewellery but (the judge) judged it be one of the five symbols of Sikhism. It would be hard for other people to try and fit into that." said one lawyer. (And by the way, you don't want to know how long it took to find a pic of a bangle that didn't look like a Nuva Ring.) [The Guardian]

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5030467&view=rss&microfeed=true Robert M. Baum of the University of Missouri has been conducting research on the Diola people of (what is now) Senegal for nearly 30 years. Despite his many visits and increasing status level within the Diola communities (and his access to male religious leaders and male religious shrines), he continued to be stymied in his efforts to research and understand Diola women's religious traditions — especially when it came to the Ehugna, a fertility shrine accessible only to women who had given birth. Religious leaders refused to be interviewed about it, he was consistently denied access and has finally determined that "...access to women's ritual spaces and esoteric knowledge may be too restricted for male researchers." Yeah, Bob, now you know how women anthropological researchers feel much of the time. Sucks, doesn't it? [Eureka Alert]

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