May 9, 2011 11:10:20 PM CEST
Good evening,
My name is Safia Hamidat and I am 27 years old. I am a British citizen of mixed parentage and I have been living in the Netherlands for 11 years. I speak Dutch fluently. I studied at an international school as well as European Studies at HBO level.
I have been looking for a place to rent in Amsterdam (with a Dutch friend) for months. It was suggested that I look into anti-kraak housing. My friend and I both registered on the site two days ago where we had to fill out a form - personal details, a photo, whether we were students or working, smoker or not. I also stated that I was looking for a house with a friend and that we both work fulltime.
My friend was called this afternoon and I wasn't. I thought it was strange so I decided to call the company. I asked if they had received my application. The young man I spoke to asked for my name and when I gave it he said 'oh we don't get those kind of names here'.....I ignored it. I then started some chitchat about how difficult it was to find housing in Amsterdam for young professionals and starters which is why I wanted to go down this route.
He told me that he understood but that there was no housing at all available at the moment (my friend had just been called because they had found a house for her). I went on to ask if there was a waiting list policy and then he said no, there wasn't and that people were chosen from the database according to 'representiviteit' and whether they thought that the candidate would be a good 'bewoner' for one of their houses.
At that point I told him that I knew he had contacted my friend and he was startled. He said yes, I just had her on the phone...'tjah..ze heeft geluk gehad' (yes..she was lucky).
I ended the conversation politely and felt very strange! I felt as if I had been discriminated against. So I called back, but he was busy so I left my number. He called once (one ring and before I could even pick up he had hung up) and then 5 minutes later again. I confronted him in a professional manner.
I told him that he had been discriminative because 1) his comment about my name 2) and that according to him he picked people based on representiviteit (appearance) and if they were suitable or not. All this based on a simple internet form with a photograph. Furthermore he had told me that there were no houses available.
We had a discussion (which I wrote down) and he said he felt insulted. He made points such as it’s mostly Dutch names like kees and jan who register and that my name was not common and that they look at age as well…he also retracted and said I had just told my colleague that you were a friend of the girl I was interviewing tomorrow and how he thought I was very suitable i.e. hardly any Dutch spelling mistakes, no piercing or tattoos etc. He was trying to justify his behaviour. I told him that it’s wrong to select people based on a name and photo and that he should be accurate when giving information – so instead of saying that there are no houses available and making it seem impossible, he should have said that he had a house but that it was being offered to someone else. Furthermore his comment about my name was uncalled for.
In my view this is an example of subtle discrimination and I really feel the need to take it further. How do I go about this? Ombudsman? Discrimination bureau? Political party?