And if Secular Democracies Are Going to be Taken Seriously

We need to stop seeing headlines like this:

Airport baggage screener suspended over long skirt

TORONTO - An observant Muslim woman has been suspended without pay from her job screening passengers and baggage at Toronto's Pearson International Airport since August over an extra 12 inches of navy blue fabric added to the skirt of her uniform out of religious conviction.

There's a bit more to it. Theoretically it's a violation of the uniform. And the woman worked five years in trousers without an issue.

But, come on--she added 12 inches to her skirt.

Had she decided to add a turban, a kippah, or a hijab, there wouldn't have been one word said.

So what the hell is the big damn deal?

"It's important to stress the importance of the uniform and uniformity. The reason it was rolled out was to have a credible and professional corporate identity," spokeswoman Anna-Karina Tabunar said. "We're treating it not just as an issue of a new skirt, we're treating it as a broader issue, a policy issue, and as such CATSA has to gather all the facts to evaluate the different aspects of the request and the impact it's going to have on CATSA's uniform and uniform policy."

Sounds like an awful lot of words to explain why it's necessary to suspend this woman without pay while that evaluation is going on.