KCL Student Denied AirBnb Accommodation Because of Hijab

Yesterday a King’s College London Phd student was declined accommodation by an AirBnb host because of her religion.

Nurjahan, a PhD student at King’s, had her request to rent an available apartment rejected by the AirBnb host. The reason for this, according to a message sent by the host, was that Nurjahan’s hijab would not “fit into our neighborhood”.

Source: Twitter, @rxxj__

This directly violates AirBnb’s non-discriminatory policy.

This was brought to attention on Twitter by Nurjahan’s friend who goes by @rxxj__. Mohamed Salhi, King’s College Students’ Union Vice President for Education (Arts & Scieces), retweeted her expressing his concern: “Our students should be free from discrimination both on AND off campus!”.

Source: Twitter

AirBnb is currently mananging this situation. The company stated on Twitter that it “doesn’t tolerate discrimination in any way”. Nurjahan has been contacted by AirBnb and, according to Mohamed, the host has had all her listings removed.