Nick Meyer, ArabAmericanNews.com

Two Muslim women from Detroit are jointly suing fast-food giant McDonald's for $10 million for alleged acts of discrimination against them in the hiring process involving their rights to wear a hijab at work.

The suit, filed on their behalf by Dearborn lawyer and chairman of the Michigan Advisory Board for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Nabih Ayad, with support from Dawud Walid, Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was announced at a press conference on Thursday, July 24. The conference was held in the parking lot where the new CVS store is being built next to the McDonald's where the alleged incidents took place, on Ford Road near Schaefer Road in Dearborn. The restaurant serves halal chicken.

The two women are Toi Whitfield, a 20-year-old African American from Detroit, and Quiana Pugh, a 25-year-old African-American from Detroit. Both are Muslims and both claim to have been denied employment by McDonald's because of their head scarves. The plaintiffs did not know each other prior to the lawsuit, but both ended up with attorney Ayad through a "friend-of-a-friend" type of situation, according to Ayad.

Whitfield applied for a position at the McDonald's on Ford Road in November of 2006 and had the necessary background, ability and knowledge for the position, according to the text of the lawsuit. It also says that Pugh had the necessary qualifications when she applied in July of 2008 at the same location.

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