$17.5M settlement deal struck for people who say police violated their right to wear head covering in booking photos

A Muslim family poses for photos, Sunday, July 17, 2016, in New York

A Muslim family poses for photos, Sunday, July 17, 2016, in New York’s Times Square. Behind them are Statue of Liberty characters. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

After thousands of women were forced to remove their hijab, or religious head covering, for their booking photos, a $17.5 million settlement agreement has been reached with the city of New York to pay the class action plaintiffs.

The lawsuit began in 2018 when two Muslim women, Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, said they were forced to remove their hijab before New York Police Department officers took their booking photos after they were arrested. The garment is traditionally considered a religious in nature and for many Muslim women it is considered a mandatory aspect of their faith and something they must wear, in particular, in the presence of men so that they are not defiled.

Clark, who was arrested for violating what she called a “bogus protective order filed by her abusive ex-husband” in 2018, had her hijab pushed down around her shoulders before her photo was snapped. It left her sobbing, feeling “naked” and humiliated, the original complaint notes.

Aziz was arrested for allegedly violating a restraining order that she said was made against her by a “vindictive sister-in-law.” This happened eight months after Clark’s arrest and like Clark, Aziz had her hijab forcibly removed before her booking photo was taken. Aziz said police took the photo of her without her head covering in full view of several male officers and at least 30 male inmates. She also sobbed, her attorneys said. Aziz said she offered to pull her hijab further back from her hairline so that her face was more visible a, but officers refused to make the accommodation before taking her photo and adding it to the police database.

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