ABSTRACT
While some aspects of the expression of our identities have had success under human rights law, most have not. The difficulty appears to be due to the balancing of the rights of others, and who holds the power in these situations. While some religions have also had more success than others in their expressions, other religions, particular lifestyles and their manifestations have not. They are seen as less important or as ‘purely subjective’. It seems society in some way accepts that some types of appearance are a reflection of who we ‘really’ or ‘truly’ are. These cover the grounds for discrimination mentioned in Chapter 2: and in the main, these are race, sex, religion and disability. Yet even for these grounds legal success can be elusive. The different treatment can be explained through ‘grooming policies’ in the workplace, or the supposed ‘unreasonable’ and ‘ostentatious’ style of appearance. This can be seen in case law concerning hairstyles. For example, the dismissal was caused by braids, or dreadlocks or ‘finger waves’, not race. 7 Or the problem is a full-length covering like a jilbab or a face veil, which are seen as, among other things, too ‘ostentatious’ or ‘unreasonable’, and not religious (or racial or sex) discrimination. 8
