Us$17.5mil to settle suit over forced removal of head coverings

New York City has agreed to pay Us$17.5mil (Rm83.01mil) on to settle a lawsuit filed by two Muslim women who were forced to remove their head coverings to be photographed after they were arrested.

The class-action lawsuit was filed in 2018 by Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, two Muslim women who said they felt shamed and exposed when they were forced to remove their hijabs after they were arrested.

“When they forced me to take off my hijab, I felt as if I were naked. I’m not sure if words can capture how exposed and violated I felt,” Clark said in a statement. “I’m so proud today to have played a part in getting justice for thousands of New Yorkers.”

Clark was arrested on Jan 9, 2017 and Aziz was arrested on Aug 30, 2017.

The lawsuit said police officers threatened to prosecute Clark, who was sobbing after being arrested for violating a bogus protective order filed by her abusive former husband, if she did not remove her head covering.

The lawsuit said Aziz, who also had been arrested because of a bogus protective order, felt broken when her picture was taken where a dozen male police officers and more than 30 male inmates could see her.

City officials initially defended the practice of forcing people to remove head coverings for mug shots, saying the policy balanced respect for religious customs with “the legitimate law enforcement need to take arrest photos”.

But the police department changed the policy in 2020 as part of an initial settlement of the lawsuit and said it would allow arrested people to keep their head coverings on for mug shots with limited exceptions such as if the head covering obscures the person’s facial features.