Not getting a job because of hijab/headscarf

I'm following this news about a woman who was not offered a job at a big organization in US (Abercrombie & Fitch) because she was wearing a headscarf.

Of course the lawyer, to defend his client (the organization), said that their so-called look policy is religion-neutral policy and that the company didn't discriminate the woman because of her religion.

Why is this case so interesting?

The government believes that the burden should be on the employer, because the employer here — to take the first step in a job interview, because the employer has superior knowledge, knows the work rules. And if the employer senses, perceives, understands or knows that there could be a religious issue, the employer should just bring it up and start what Congress intended, a dialogue with the job applicant, to see if there was a religious issue, and is there a need for an accommodation? Otherwise, if you put the burden on the employee or job applicant, as the lower court here did, they’re reluctant to bring religion up in a job interview.

I also agree with the following opinion that the employers should be the first party to open the discussion over something that can be considered sensitive/private/very personal to the candidate

he really simplified this and said, look, why can’t an employer just say — for one of the hypotheticals, you have somebody wearing a beard in front of you, why can’t an employer just say during the interview, we have a work policy that excludes beards? Do you have a problem with that? It doesn’t draw religion into it right away. But it gives — then the onus shifts to the job applicant to say if he or she does have a problem with it.

What the following person describe is so very true at least in western countries. We have strong anti-discriminatory laws to give equal opportunity to folks in the matter of employment, but still so many good candidates don't get the same level of consideration for the job.

An employer’s responsibility is not to bury their head in the stand when they are on notice that a potential employee will need a reasonable accommodation from them to work for them. So, for example, in this case, there were supervisors, employees who recognized the young woman’s head scarf as a hijab, and that a hijab is a religious garment. Instead of engaging in a dialogue with her at all, or asking her, do you think you’re going to have any problems doing this job, here is our look policy, they basically decided to avoid the issue altogether and not to extend her a job offer, even though otherwise she seemed to be a good candidate.

Reference
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/supreme-court-weighs-religious-freedom-affects-business-dress-codes