A recent video that surfaced on social media in which a woman wearing a saree was not allowed to enter a restaurant in Delhi sparked outrage across the country, as the saree is one of India’s traditional dresses and is not permitted to be worn and entered in its own country.
The woman who was denied entry said “Way is the first time I’ve ever been insulted like this. “I, too, am hurt,” she posted on the internet. She also shared a photo of herself in the saree, stating that she was celebrating her daughter’s birthday at the restaurant.
However, Prabhakar Kr Mishra a journalist shared on Twitter, a male staff can be heard saying that the rights of admission are reserved. As the argument continued, he also said that they cannot allow them to enter the premises owing to their underaged daughter who was accompanying them.
However, according to the tweet by journalist Prabhakar Kr Mishra, a male staff member can be heard claiming that entry rights are reserved. As the argument progressed, he added that they are unable to admit them since they are accompanied by their underage daughter.
On the other hand, the restaurant stated that “We ‘ALLOW’ people in sarees, and the claims the person has made are just to tarnish our brand because we didn’t accept her misbehaving with our staff,” the restaurant added, denying the allegations. According to them, the “10-second” clip posted by Choudhary was part of a conversation that lasted for “one hour”.
“When a guest arrived at the restaurant, she was politely asked to wait at the entrance because her name was not on the reservation list. However, as we were discussing where we could seat them within, a patron entered the restaurant and began fighting and abusing our employees,” they said in a statement.
“To deal with the incident and ask the guest to leave, one of our gate managers issued a statement stating that sarees are not permitted under our smart casual dress code, and our entire team apologizes,” they added.
“Aquila is a homegrown brand and each member of the team stands tall as a proud Indian. Our gate manager’s statement in no way is a representation of the entire team’s view on the dress code,” they clarified.
In response to the Aquila Restaurant team’s assertion that a reservation had been made for 1 pm, the woman called the statement untrue and tweeted a message with the details of booking a table at the restaurant.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the National Commission for Women requested the Delhi Police Commissioner to investigate the incident in which a woman was allegedly denied access to a city eatery because she was wearing a saree and take appropriate action.
The NCW also said that they have written to the marketing and public relations director of the restaurant to appear before the Commission on September 28 along with supporting documents and explanation.
It said it came across a social media post wherein the restaurant allegedly denied entry to the woman because she was wearing a saree.
“Saree is a part of Indian culture, and women in India predominantly wear saree, thus refusing any woman admission to a restaurant based on her costume is a violation of her right to live with dignity,” according to the statement. The NCW also denounced the restaurant’s irrational and odd behaviour, as well as its policies.
