The “spiteful” treatment of Nahid Mahmoud, a secretary at the Islamic Cultural Centre and Central Mosque in Regent’s Park, London, amounted to an “exploitation of the weakness of women in Islamic culture”, an employment tribunal was told.

Mrs Mahmoud was accused by a senior member of staff of fraud, black magic, bullying, using dirty words and “wasting valuable office hours in idle conversation”.

The tribunal heard that Younes Teinaz, head of administration and human resources at the mosque, also accused her repeatedly of being in the country illegally, even after she had proved that this was not the case. Most of the claims were made in letters to the director-general of the mosque, Ahmed al-Dubayan, for whom she worked as a personal assistant.

Mrs Mahmoud, whose 13-year-old son was so distressed by the harassment that he ran away from home, had to take five weeks off work because of the “serious and prolonged campaign of ill-treatment”. A psychiatrist diagnosed a “major depressive episode” and she still suffers symptons of depression.

The tribunal heard that Mrs Mahmoud began work at the mosque, funded by Middle Eastern states, in 1999 and is still there. Dr Teinaz, an Arab of Libyan origin, was appointed in 2004 as an adviser to Dr al-Dubayan, a member of the Saudi diplomatic staff in Britain. Although named in the action, the tribunal had no jurisdiction over him because of diplomatic immunity.

Mrs Mahmoud, an Egyptian who came to England in 1979 with her first husband and has lived here continuously since 1988, was granted leave to stay in her own right in 2004. She is divorced from her first husband and separated from her second.

Initially she and Dr Teinaz got on well but relations soured after she refused him access to the noticeboard.

She was under instructions from Dr al-Dubayan not to release the key to anyone else. She wrote to her boss complaining of Dr Teinaz’s subsequent abuse of her, arguing that it was sex discrimination.

Soon afterwards Dr Teinaz began his “spiteful and targeted” campaign against Mrs Mahmoud, the tribunal’s judgment records. His “undermining” of Mrs Mahmoud continued; he even instructed that she be removed from the mosque when she worked late one day.

Dr Teinaz wrote to Dr al-Dubayan complaining that Mrs Mahmoud was breaching office regulations by taking time off after her aunt died. And he gave her a final written warning after she used the mosque’s headed notepaper to write to him. He accused her falsely of making a rape and theft allegation against a member of the mosque and called for her to be sacked for “immoral activities”.

He instructed a worker at the mosque, Shaheed Hussain, to file a complaint of sexual harassment against Mrs Mahmoud after she commented on the colour of Mr Hussain’s eyes. He also made unfounded allegations to police, including that she had arranged the marriage of a woman who was already married.

Dr Teinaz, a volunteer at the mosque whose responsibilities have been “substantially reduced”, admitted searching through Mrs Mahmoud’s desk seeking “evidence” to back up his claims.

According to Sheikh Anwar Mady, deputy director-general of the mosque, the behaviour of Dr Teinaz “amounted to an exploitation of the weakness of women in Islamic culture”. A man in the same position would not have been treated the same way, the judgment says.

Referring to the treatment she received, Mrs Mahmoud said: “I have never seen anything like it in my life.”An award to her of £34,751 for sexual and racial discrimination was made jointly against the mosque and Dr Teinaz.

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• Linklaters trounces rivals as UK's biggest firm
• Clifford Chance profits plunge 37 per cent
• Casual drinkers hit by spread of 'dry' zones