Swedish Muslim wins case after refusing handshake with man at job interview

A Swedish Muslim woman has been awarded compensation after claiming a job interview was ended abruptly when she declined to shake hands with a male interviewer.

A labour court ordered a translation company to pay Farah Alhajeh, 24, the sum of 40,000 kronor (£3420).

Rather than shake a man’s hand, she said she smiled and placed her hand on her heart while explaining her religious objection to physical.

She told the New York Times she was then shown to the lift.

“It was like a punch in the face,” she said. “It was the first time someone reacted, and it was a really harsh reaction.”

Ms Alhajeh was applying for a job as a translator in May 2016 with Semantix in her home town of Uppsala.

"As soon as I got to the elevator, I cried," she told Swedish news channel SVT.

Some Muslims avoid contact with members of the opposite sex apart from members of their immediate family.

Semantix said that as a defender of sex equality it could not hire someone who would react differently to men and women who offered a handshake in greeting.

The court ruled in favour of Ms Alhajeh and said that “the woman’s refusal to shake hands with people of the opposite sex is a religious manifestation that is protected under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights,” according to the ruling obtained by the New York Times.

It added that although the company was right to require employees to treat men and women the same, it could not demand that greetings involved shaking hands.

Ms Alhajeh welcomed the decision and told the BBC: "In my country... you cannot treat women and men differently. I respect that. That's why I don't have any physical contact with men or with women.

“I can live by the rules of my religion and also at the same time follow the rules of the country that I live in.”