Air France flight attendants have protested against a directive requiring them to wear headscarves upon landing in Iran, as the airline plans to resume flights from Paris to Tehran on April 17.
Flights by the French airline to Iran were suspended in 2008 but will resume as sanctions have been lifted against the country. Announcing the reinstated flights, airline chiefs also ordered female airline employees to comply with the conservative country's standards of dress.
Air France told the AFP that all air crew are "obliged like other foreign visitors to respect the laws of the countries to which they travelled."
"Iranian law requires that a veil covering the hair be worn in public places by all women on its territory. This obligation, which does not apply during the flight, is respected by all international airlines which fly to Iran." The airline insisted requiring employees to comply with country-specific standards is nothing new, citing that the same requirement was in place before 2008 and also applies to Saudi Arabia.
Regardless, female employees are concerned about the requirement. "Every day we have calls from worried female cabin crew who tell us that they do not want to wear the headscarf," Christophe Pillet of the SNPC union told AFP. He also said that the airline would require female employees to "wear trousers during the flight with a loose fitting jacket and a scarf covering their hair on leaving the plane."
The head of the UNAC flight crews’ union Flore Arrighi said, "It is not our role to pass judgement 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."
Women in Iran have been required to wear headscarves since the the 1979 Islamic Revolution in the country.