MINNESOTA: MUSLIM WOMAN AWARDED $120,000 FOR HAVING TO REMOVE HER HIJAB FOR JAILHOUSE MUGSHOT
BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research
purposes:
Every other prisoner is expected to get a mugshot and exchange his or her own clothes for jail clothes, but not Aida Shyef Al-Kadi, a Muslim woman in Minnesota. She “received $120,000 to settle her lawsuit alleging she was forced to strip in jail and remove her hijab for a booking photo…A judge had issued a warrant” for Aida Shyef Al-Kadi’s “arrest after she missed a court hearing over a traffic offense.”In her lawsuit, Al-Kadi complained “that the county violated her constitutional rights and discriminated against her for her religious beliefs.”$120,000. Taxpayers foot the bill for these special entitlements. What about the rights of taxpayers in the midst of this growing two-tier system of justice? Note that the settlement did not require the county “to admit wrongdoing.” And it did no wrong. Any number of things could be hidden in a hijab.“Woman allegedly forced to remove hijab for mugshot gets $120,000 in settlement,” Guardian, December 18, 2019:A Minnesota Muslim woman has received $120,000 to settle her lawsuit alleging she was forced to strip in jail and remove her hijab for a booking photo over a traffic offense, the woman and her attorneys said Tuesday.Aida Shyef Al-Kadi appeared with her attorneys at the Minneapolis headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to announce the settlement approved last month.Al-Kadi, 57, said her treatment at the Ramsey county jail in August 2013 was “one of the most humiliating and harmful experiences” of her life.“I knew that I did not want any other Muslim woman to experience what I did,” she said.A judge had issued a warrant for Al-Kadi’s arrest after she missed a court hearing over a traffic offense while taking her daughter to the hospital, the Star Tribune reported.In her lawsuit, Al-Kadi argued that the county violated her constitutional rights and discriminated against her for her religious beliefs.Al-Kadi was born and raised in Ohio. She moved to Minnesota in 2005 so her daughter could receive specialized medical care.When Al-Kadi turned herself in, she said, she was told to remove her hijab and abaya, a long dress that covered her body, in front of male jailers. When she objected, she said, she was removed from the area and taken to a holding cell, where she removed her hijab in front of a male jailer.She said she agreed to remove her headscarf for her booking photo after being told that the photo would never be released to the public. But months later, she found it on a third-party website that charges users to take down the photos.After taking the photo, officers gave her a bedsheet to use as a hijab. Al-Kadi eventually was told to remove her abaya and change into a jail uniform, while two female officers watched her. Ramsey county policy says that misdemeanor inmates such as Al-Kadi “will not be viewed without clothing”, according to court records.Under the settlement, the jail has put in place specific rules about how to accommodate inmates with religious headwear when taking booking photos. The county also agreed to destroy all hard copies and delete any electronic copies of Al-Kadi’s booking photo.The settlement does not require the county to admit wrongdoing….
