۱۰ فروردین ۱۴۰۳ |۱۹ رمضان ۱۴۴۵ | Mar 29, 2024
Muslim woman sues police in Yonkers, New York, for forced hijab removal

When Yonkers, New York, police demanded Ihsan Malkawi remove her hijab for her booking photograph, the 42-year-old Muslim woman became distraught.

Hawzah News Agency (New York, U.S.) - In an exclusive interview, a Muslim woman talks about the trauma she faced after police confiscated and photographed her without her hijab.

When Yonkers, New York, police demanded Ihsan Malkawi remove her hijab for her booking photograph, the 42-year-old Muslim woman became distraught.

She tried through tears to explain to the officers that she wore her hijab for religious reasons and it was not a fashion accessory. She explained to them that she does not take it off for photographs or be seen without it by any male members that aren’t her family.

The officers didn’t budge. They told Malkawi that the law required her to remove her hijab and be photographed without it. That’s not true, according to Malkawi’s attorneys. But at the time, Malkawi didn’t feel as if she had a choice. She took her hijab off only to have it taken away for photos, a night in jail and a court appearance.

“I just wanted them to respect my rights, but I felt like they didn’t care,” Malkawi told. “From the first minute, I felt discriminated against.” 

On Wednesday, Malkawi and her attorneys filed a civil rights suit against Yonkers, arguing that the Yonkers Police Department violated her religious rights and that the department’s removal policy –– an obscure protocol that forces arrestees to remove religious head coverings while in custody –– violates the Constitution and should be abolished.

“It is unacceptable that the City of Yonkers would cling to a policy that degrades and humiliates Muslim women, and others, by forcing them to remove their head covering against their sincerely held religious beliefs. This policy is illegal,” said Ahmed Mohamed, litigation director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations - New York, which is representing Malkawi along with the law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady. 

The City of Yonkers declined to comment.

The lawsuit is one of several across the country and at least the third in New York state over police forcing Muslim women to remove their hijabs, which are often donned by observant Muslim women and cover their hair and neck. Like Sikh turbans or Jewish yarmulkes, such religious headwear does not obscure the face and is accepted in other legal documents, such as a U.S. passport and driver’s license. But Muslim women in multiple states have reported that they, like Malkawi, were told by police to take off their hijabs. Muslim women have been forced to turn to the courts for reprieve.

“There is no legitimate need for law enforcement to remove religious head coverings for mug shots or any other purpose,” said attorney Emma L. Freeman of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady. “In 2020, the state should not be coercing people in its custody to violate their religious beliefs.”

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