Muslim woman awarded $85,000 for forceful removal of hijab

Many muslimats with hijab have faced numerous abuses from anti muslim characters. One of the victims, Kirsty Powell sued the city of Long Beach after an officer forcibly removed her hijab while in she was police custody. (Council on American-Islamic Relations)

The city has agreed to pay $85,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by a Muslim woman, Powell whose hijab was pulled off by a male officer while she was in police custody. She believed that such act has violated her rights and freedom and so, justice must prevail.

Reports confirmed that the settlement, approved recently concludes the legal battle undertaken by Kirsty Powell, an African American Muslim. Her lawsuit, filed in 2016, prompted the Long Beach Police Department to reverse its policy barring inmates from wearing religious head coverings.

“There really is no justification for taking off a person’s religious headgear,” said Powell’s attorney, Marwa Rifahie, who also works for the Greater Los Angeles Area Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

During her time of arrest, she was then told she would have to remove her hijab. Powell told the officers “that she wears a hijab in accordance with her religious practice and that it is her legal right to wear it,” the lawsuit said.

The attorney further stated that she was driven to the Long Beach police station, where she was booked and stripped of her hijab in front of other male officers and inmates, according to the lawsuit. Powell was detained for 24 hours without her hijab. Once she was allowed to leave, she was given a property bag containing it:

“She was held in the jail overnight, forced to sit in a cell feeling distraught, vulnerable and naked without her headscarf to everyone that passed. She cried throughout the ordeal and experienced humiliation when both her religious beliefs and personal integrity were violated. She felt that the male officers and male inmates had seen parts of her body that they should not have seen, according to her religious beliefs.”

In order to fight for a violated right, Powell reached out to CAIR, the Muslim civil rights organization, to go over her options immediately after her release. In the months after the suit was filed, the Police Department overhauled its policy to accommodate inmates with religious head coverings.

As a result, Female officers are now required to remove a female inmate’s headscarf, “when necessary for officer’s safety,” outside the presence of male officers and inmates, said Monte Machit, Long Beach assistant city attorney. However, the headscarf is then returned to the inmate.

“In our view, the removal of the hijab by a male officer, in the presence of other males, while consistent with the then-existing Long Beach Police Department policy, may have violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act,” Machit said.

Kristy Powell has been reportedly excited with the development. She stated that the compensation for her hijab removal is not her victory but the fact that justice was duely served for the violation of her fundamental human right which brought her a golden smile remains her greatest victory.