I’m under Coronavirus lockdown and stir-crazy. The only thing keeping me upbeat are the Corona memes going around on social media. Abu Dhir sent me a note to cheer me up, and attached this photo. It made me laugh, but I also felt sad.
Not A Laughing Matter Though
Workplace harassment is no laughing matter, of course. But Susanne Arani, the CAIR civil rights attorney featured in the event poster, is the same person now suing CAIR for… violating her rights at work. Quite the Arani… I mean, the irony. (Sorry, lockdown brings out bad puns.)
Susanne Arani’s Civil Right Violated
Not long after this event on workplace harassment took place, CAIR-San Diego was sued by Susanne Arani for violating its employees’ civil rights. Arani, who joined CAIR-San Diego as an attorney in 2015, filed the suit against her former employer in 2019, alleging wrongfully terminating because of her political and religious beliefs, gender, and age.
Susanne Arani’s lawsuit claims that the leader of CAIR-San Diego:
- Maintained a CAIR employee handbook that officially stated women’s testimony was only half as valid as men’s;
- Policed the wardrobe of CAIR’s female employees, including chiding a pregnant staffer for wearing clothes that were “too tight”, while himself violating the dress code and not reprimanding male staffers
- Paid CAIR’s male employees over 50% more than comparable female employees and promoted under-qualified men over women
- Verbally harassed and intimidated a female staffer who was attempting to file a discrimination complaint about his reneging on a salary increase.
In other words, everything Susanne Arani presented about for CAIR at the civil rights clinic at the Islamic Center of San Diego allegedly then happened inside CAIR itself.
Hostile Work Environment? Fairness in Hiring, Firing & Promotions? Religious Accommodations? Apparently so. And the man’s boot crushing the professional woman at the top of the poster? Apparently all too real.
My laughter over the irony turns to sadness. CAIR has been getting away with misleading us for years. They claim to be a civil rights group but are civil rights violators. They aren’t defending our rights – they are using our community to advance their own corruption. Just ask Lori Haidri. How much longer can they get away with it?
As we say in Urdu:
ظاہر رحمان کا
باطن شيطان کا
Saintly exterior, satanic interior.