A post shared on Facebook claims Spanish apparel company Zara has instituted a ban on hijabs for women in its France locations.

Facebook/Screenshot

Verdict: Misleading

While there was an incident in Paris in 2015 in which a Zara security guard refused to let a woman wearing a hijab enter the store, there is no evidence to suggest Zara has any policy in place banning hijabs. 

Fact Check:

The Facebook post, shared over 50 times, claims Zara had banned women from wearing hijabs at its locations in France. An estimated 10 percent of France’s population is Muslim, according to The New York Times.

“The store Zara just made a decision in france not to let any woman wearing hijjab(sic) to their stores,” reads part of the post, which then goes on to call for Muslims to boycott the store. (RELATED: Image Claims To Show George W. Bush’s Daughter Wearing A Hijab)

The claim is inaccurate. There is no evidence to suggest Zara has instituted a ban on hijabs at any of its locations. There is no mention of such a policy on the company’s website or on its verified social media accounts. There are likewise no credible news reports to suggest the company has implemented such a policy in any of its stores or is planning to do so in the future.

“[L]et us inform that Zara company policy allows women wearing hijab to enter its stores worldwide,” a spokesperson for Zara told Check Your Fact in an email.

The claim seems to stem from an incident that occurred in Paris in 2015 in which, according to Buzzfeed News, a Zara security guard refused to let a woman wearing a hijab enter the store. The incident was caught on camera and the company quickly apologized for the incident and clarified in a Twitter post that it is “absolutely not” the company’s policy to ban hijabs, the outlet reported.

This is not the first time hijabs have been used to push misinformation on social media. Check Your Fact previously debunked an image in February 2021 showing climate activist Greta Thunberg wearing a green hijab.

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include a response from a spokesperson at Zara.