Changes at jail urged after hijab removed

One of the region’s preeminent Muslim rights groups is demanding immediate policy and training changes based on a woman’s account that her hijab was forcibly removed while she was booked into a Santa Clara County jail, prompting her to resort to using a sweater and then a shirt to cover her head after she was deprived of any replacement.

The demands were made public Thursday by the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and called for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office to apologize to the woman — a Muslim of Somali descent — arrange a meeting with the involved deputies and prevent any repeat instances through cultural and religious competency training and revising jail policies to properly address religious head coverings.

“It is shocking that the (Santa Clara County) Sheriff’s Office, which serves tens of thousands of Muslim families, would permit its officers to strip a Muslim woman of her religious head covering, violating her constitutional rights,” Ammad Rafiqi, the regional CAIR chapter’s civil rights and legal services coordinator, said in a statement.

Rafiqi said CAIR has lodged a related complaint with the Sheriff’s Office and the county. The woman whose reported experience fueled the complaint was arrested by Santa Clara police in February in connection with a domestic dispute call.

In a statement, the sheriff’s office suggested that the account described by CAIR was a departure from practice.

“We are thankful to CAIR for making us aware of this incident, and we are investigating the circumstances to determine if policy was followed, including a review of our current booking protocol,” the statement reads.

The woman, whose name was not publicized by CAIR out of concern for potential harassment against her, said her hijab was removed by deputies arranging a booking photo at the Elmwood women’s jail in Milpitas.

She contends that she told deputies about the religious significance of her headscarf and that it should not be removed in front of men, and asked that she either get it back or be given a replacement.

When they were unresponsive, she said she used her sweater to cover her head for the rest of the booking process, but then the sweater was confiscated when she was issued jail clothing. The woman said she asked for and received a second shirt to cover her head but did not get her headscarf back after she was released on bail.

The sheriff’s office said female arrestees are booked in an area away from male arrestees, and contends it provides hijabs when they don’t pose a safety risk based on a mental-health evaluation. But given the claim from CAIR, the agency said it will work “to ensure that our booking procedures provide appropriate safety procedures while balancing one’s religious practice expectations.”

In a statement released through CAIR, the woman said her treatment left her “scarred” and experiencing constant emotional distress.

“Now I will have to reconsider before reaching out to law enforcement during times of danger out of fear of being targeted,” she said. “I want to make sure that the SCC Sheriff’s Office is held accountable for their actions, and that no woman’s hijab is forcibly removed without her consent again.”