The Equity Talk: Muslim women say their voices aren't heard in the workplace. That's a massive problem corporate execs need to address.
Samantha Lee/Insider
- Ramadan, a time of reflection and fasting for Muslims, takes place throughout April this year.
- Religion and faith are excluded from most diversity conversations in the workplace.
- CEOs and diversity execs can't claim to be inclusive without discussing faith, consultants said.
Besides wishing one another "happy holidays" during the winter season, most Americans don't talk about religion at work. In fact, about a third of people think religion is the single most uncomfortable topic to discuss in the workplace, according to a 2019 survey of more than 1,000 US workers by the performance-management company, Reflektive.
Case in point: It's Ramadan, one of the most important holy seasons for about 3.8 million Muslim Americans, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a CEO acknowledging it, save for a few exceptions. It's a period of reflection marked by fasting from sunrise to sunset and lasts from April 1 to May 1 this year.
In an era when CEOs are being pressed to champion diversity and inclusion, Muslim professionals say they feel excluded from conversations about creating better workplace cultures.
"I've felt that I'm competing with other women of color for that one seat at the table with other white men or white women," said Sofia Haq, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Muslim Women Professionals. "I've also sometimes felt that, as a Muslim woman, I was tokenized."
Most diversity reports include data and objectives on race and gender but stop there. Muslim women, many of whom wear a hijab, say they face not just exclusion, but discrimination amid lingering Islamophobia post 9/11 and various anti-hijab campaigns in Europe and India. Multiple recent studies show Muslim women who wear a head scarf face discrimination in job interviews. At the same time, they're being asked to operate in professional settings with little consideration for their lived experiences like abstaining from alcohol or praying five times a day. This is a management failure and a missed opportunity, multiple diversity, equity and inclusion consultants say, but CEOs have an opportunity to reframe conversations around inclusion to include faith.
"I think a lot of leaders and a lot of managers think diversity, equity, and inclusion is race and gender. If it's really cutting-edge, it's also about sexual identity and orientation. But getting into religion, that's something that people and organizations shy away from," said Soumaya Khalifa, the CEO of diversity and inclusion consultancy Khalifa Consulting. "Inclusion needs to be part of the DNA of an organization."
In the latest installment of The Equity Talk, diversity consultant Khalifa and nonprofit founder Haq, both of whom are Muslim, shared their insight on how CEOs and managers can do better by this growing community.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Where are we when it comes to corporate diversity and Muslim women? Are business leaders hearing your calls for inclusion?
Sofia Haq: A lot of times there are conversations about what your ethnicity is, but less so about religion. For so many Muslims, our religion plays such a huge role in the way that we live. So for example, it's Ramadan right now. I'm fasting. I don't drink alcohol. I don't eat pork. I pray five times a day. These are all parts of my religion that make me who I am. So when I'm having to go to work and leave that at the door, I'm actually not being as embraced as others are.
I think corporate America needs to do a better job. Some examples include offering accommodations during Ramadan for workers who are fasting, or rethinking the role happy hours play in corporate America. I've attended so many happy hours, and I drink my ginger ale, but sometimes I wonder, is this the only way that we build community?
We are also seeing more Muslim women in ads and on runways and things like that, which is promising. I do think that a lot of companies recognize the value of Muslim women as consumers. But I think Muslim women are becoming a lot more selective with who they decide to choose from. And that's a great thing. We're recognizing our power as consumers.
Soumaya Khalifa: If we are taking diversity, equity, and inclusion seriously, and if we want to be able to have a culture of belonging, we have to tell people, yes, bring your whole self, including religion. This is related to a company's bottom line, it's about turnover. It's related to the mass exodus the corporate world has been having.
What are concrete ways corporate America can better support Muslim women?
Soumaya Khalifa: It's not just about making your culture Muslim-friendly, I'm saying let's look back at the DNA of your organization and ask, "Is it really inclusive? Do you make an extra effort as an organization to bring diversity in and keep it? Are your diverse employees succeeding, or is there a glass ceiling somewhere?"
So having a calendar of all religious observances is something that is really important. Wishing people a "Happy Ramadan" or "Ramadan Mubarak" means a lot, too. It matters. I was just working with a company that decided to have their global conference in the middle of Ramadan. Somebody was not looking at a global calendar. And then how do you go back and fix that?
Sofia Haq: I think accommodations are so important. Like perhaps there are times we don't schedule meetings because that's during prayer time, or perhaps we have a meditation space for praying. Or perhaps during Ramadan, an employee can speak to their supervisor and be able to get accommodations for their schedule. Or maybe for one lunch, the café could serve halal food. We want a culture where we don't feel like we have to constantly advocate for ourselves and constantly feel like we have to ask for these things individually.
Insider
The Muslim community is not a monolith. Do leaders and allies get that?
Sofia Haq: The Muslim community is one of the most diverse religious groups in the world. I'm definitely a testament to that. My mother's Latina. My father is South Asian. I live at the intersection of so many different identities and I'm very proud of it, but I've always identified with being Muslim first. It plays such a huge part in the way that I live my life.
But I'm not sure people understand this. I was a gender-studies major in college. In one of my classes, we had a discussion around modesty and feminism. A lot of white women were very outspoken saying that modesty is a form of extremism. I was so taken aback by it. I spoke up and said that we have to remember that feminism, at its core, is about women making decisions for themselves. And modesty is a form of feminism, right? Some women decide that they want to cover themselves. And as long as that's their choice, then it's feminism.
We're seeing this conversation being played out on a global stage with the various hijab bans. I think a lot of times, Muslim women are excluded from these conversations because a lot of people don't care to really understand what modesty is.
Soumaya Khalifa: The Muslim community is one of the fastest-growing religious groups in the world, so what I would also say to those in corporate America is that this problem is not going anywhere. If Muslims don't feel like they are being embraced at a company, they're going to go somewhere else. I think corporate America really has an amazing opportunity to be able to really provide spaces where Muslim professionals, and Muslim women in particular, can really feel confident and feel like their identities are embraced.
What action would you like to see from the top CEOs of the world?
Soumaya Khalifa: We need CEOs to provide that culture of belonging, to provide a positive psychological atmosphere. We need to embrace the big movement towards faith and religion and spirituality in corporate America.
Sofia Haq: I would ask CEOs, are you actually practicing what you're preaching? How are you providing resources and opportunities for Muslims and particularly Muslim women, to succeed within these companies, to take advantage of leadership positions, to have access to mentors, to have access to these different opportunities?
Also, representation matters. A lot of us have strong connections to other communities in other countries. For me, it's Mexico and Pakistan. I definitely look at leadership and ask myself, "Are there other Pakistanis in this space? Are there other Latinas in this space? Are there Black people in this space? Are we just talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion, or does our leadership actually look like our communities?"
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