Williamsburg store owners allowed to demand modest dress code
The New York City Human Rights Commission (HRC) has dropped its challenge against seven Hasidic stores with mandatory dress codes promoting modesty.
Many Hasidic storeowners posted signs in their establishments demanding “No Shorts, No Barefoot, No Sleeveless, No Low-Cut Neckline Allowed In This Store.” In 2012, the HRC filed a complaint against these stores alleging that the dress codes were discriminatory against those of the same religious persuasion.
Hasidic Judaism mandates that women dress in a modest manner, wearing skirts and dresses below the knee, keeping their elbows and necklines covered, and, in some instances, covering their natural hair. Men are also required to dress relatively moderately.
The dress code notice posted in stores, the HRC asserted in 2012, discriminated against women, particularly those were not Hasidic and therefore not required, by religious law, to keep their bodies covered. They thus violated New York regulations, which make it illegal for establishments open to the public to post signs that directly or indirectly discriminate or deny service on the basis of gender or creed, HRC said at the time.
Cardozo law school professor Marci Hamilton believed the dress code notices were the Hasidic community’s way of “trying to impose their norms on the rest of the culture.”