NYC to pay $17.5M to Muslim women forced to remove headscarves

A line of police cars are parked along a street in Times Square, New York, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2016. (AP File Photo)

NEW YORK–Two Muslim women who were forced to remove their headscarves for a mugshot won a lawsuit, which ordered New York City to pay $17.5 million for those affected. 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 headscarves 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.”However, the police department changed the policy in 2020 as part of the initial lawsuit settlement. It 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.