Yesterday, a California federal judge rules that clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch was at fault when it fired one of its employees who insisted on wearing a head scarf at work.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said that the firing of Umme-Hani Khan from its Hollister Store in San Mateo went against anti-discrimination laws. Khan, who said she wore her headscarf to her first interview with the company, was fired in 2010, and a lawsuit on her behalf was filed in 2011 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Khan began working in the store in Oct. 2009. She worked mostly in the stockroom, but went to the sales floor one to four times every shift to restock clothes. Store supervisors allowed Khan to wear the headscarf, or hijab, but things changed when the district manager came to visit.

Four months after Khan started working at the Hollister store, her district manager suspended her with pay because Khan said she would not remove the scarf. A human resources manager then told Khan that she could only continue her employment with Abercrombie & Fitch if she stopped wearing the headscarf at work. Khan was fired Feb. 22, 2010, The Washington Post reports.

According to Khan's lawyers, there were no other complaints about her work.

"I was shocked and surprised when I was asked to remove my hijab and then fired for refusing to comply," Khan said in a statement.

Abercrombie & Fitch said that the head scarf went against its policies regarding its employees' appearance. According to the retailer, this "look policy" is part of its marketing strategy, and Khan's scarf went against the Abercrombie & Fitch look, therefore hurting sales.

Judge Rogers, however, said that the company did not have any "credible evidence" that the scarf hurt sales.

"Abercrombie only offers unsubstantiated opinion testimony of its own employees to support its claim of undue hardship," Rogers said.

Later this month, there will be a trial on Abercrombie & Fitch's liability where the jury will be permitted to award punitive damages.

"Abercrombie & Fitch does not discriminate based on religion, and we grant religious accommodations when reasonable," Bruce MacKenzie, Abercrombie & Fitch spokesman, said in an interview with the Associated Press. "It is our policy not to comment on pending litigation."

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