Muslim employee at Severn Trent Water designs PPE headscarf for women to wear under safety helmet
A Muslim woman working for Severn Trent Water has designed a PPE headscarf that is suitable for workers to wear under a safety helmet.
The water utility firm said it wants to encourage more women from diverse backgrounds to join the company – and the engineering industry in general.
It has identified a particular issue that could be a potential obstacle to Muslim women who choose to wear a headscarf for religious reasons.
A hijab is a veil worn by Muslim women in the presence of men outside of their immediate family, which usually covers the hair, head and chest.
A practical and easy to wear PPE (personal protection equipment) headscarf, however, is now available to Severn Trent Water employees – old and new.
That is thanks to the ingenuity of Aminah Shafiq, a senior water quality advisor at the utility firm, which supplies water and waste services to over eight million customers across Leicestershire and the wider Midlands region.
A Severn Trent Water spokeswoman said: “We now have our first PPE headscarf available for colleagues after Aminah Shafiq, one of our employees, designed a prototype that’s suitable for Muslim women who cover their hair that’s both practical and safe to wear under helmets.
“So, anyone who has to do site visits or has an operational role now has the option to use a specific PPE headscarf on site.”
“This is really exciting,” she added. “It’s inclusive, and specific for women who chose to cover their heads.
“We hope this will help encourage more Muslim women to join the engineering industry – and make colleagues feel more comfortable and safe on site, while still appropriately covering their hair.”
It was Aminah, from Birmingham, who noticed there was no headscarf PPE option for Muslim employees such as herself when visiting operational sites, and she decided to raise the issue with her bosses.
With the backing and support of the company, she went ahead and designed a prototype to ensure both comfort and function.
Speaking about her design and the end product, Aminah said: “As part of my role, I’m often asked to go to many of our operational sites and, as a Muslim woman, I always found this to be tricky when it came to covering my head and the challenges it could bring.
“Sometimes there can be excess material from my headscarf that I would worry could get caught, or could mean my helmet doesn’t always fit properly.”
SOURCE: https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/muslim-employee-severn-trent-water-6086000