McDonald’s apologised after a 19-year-old Muslim woman said a security guard told her to take off her headscarf or leave the restaurant.
The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the guard stopped her in a north London branch and told her to remove her hijab because it was a security threat on Thursday.
She said the guard looked shocked when she refused but continued to ask, leading her to film the exchange on her phone.
Her friends later uploaded it to Twitter, according to the Guardian.
The video shows the British Muslim asking why she isn’t allowed into the reastaurant, to which he replies: ‘It’s just a matter of taking it off.’
The woman of Middle Eastern descent then says: ‘It’s not just a matter of taking it off. I wear this for religious reasons and I’m not ashamed of it, and I will stand in line and I will get the food I want, because this isn’t OK.’
When the security guard is told he cannot ask the woman to remove her hijab by a member of the public, he says: ‘It’s none of your business.’
After the woman says ‘this is f****** ridiculous’, another McDonald’s worker replies ‘don’t be rude’ and orders her to stop filming.
The woman refuses and is told she will be able to come into the restaurant, to which the Muslim replies: ‘I don’t want want anything any more.’
The woman has vowed never to go to McDonald’s again after she was told to remove her hijab for security reasons
She told the Guardian: ‘I thought: “It’s finally happening to me,” like it has to so many hijabis.
‘It didn’t feel real because I had seen so many videos like this and it was finally happening to me in real life. I was in so much disbelief.
‘The friend I was with was shocked and scared, and said it was a risky situation. When it was over, I finally realised how these situations can become dangerous. This is not a one-off thing.
‘I will never walk into a McDonald’s again.’
A McDonald’s spokeswoman said the franchise ‘does not have a policy in place which restricts or prevents anyone wearing a hijab, or any other religious dress, from entering’ its restaurants.
‘We welcome customers of all faiths and would like to apologise to the customer as this situation should not have taken place,’ she said.
‘We are taking this matter extremely seriously and are addressing this with the individuals involved.’