Muslim Women Sue for Right to Wear Hijab

Three recent lawsuits filed on behalf of Muslim women say their constitutional rights were violated when they were required to remove their hijab in the presence of men. Muslim women her are devoutly religious cover all but their face, hands and feet when in the presence of men outside immediate family members. (Photo via muslimvoices.org)

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Wayne County resident Maha Aldhalimi is the latest in a growing list of Muslim women at the center of lawsuits alleging police and business owners show little respect for the cultural traditions surrounding hijab, the most outward display of their faith.

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday against the city of Dearborn, the Dearborn Police Department, Police Chief Ronald Haddad and other police officers. ADC alleges in the petition that Aldhalimi, who had been arrested on a parking violation she didn’t know existed, was required to remove her hijab in the presence of several male officers for a police booking photo.

Muslim women with deeply held religious beliefs do not allow men who are not immediate family members to see more than their face, hand and feet. The Islamicheadscarf is a symbol of modesty, and not wearing hijab is the equivalent of being naked.

The lawsuit alleges that Aldhalimi pleaded several times with officers and explained that removing the headscarf would be a violation of her deeply held religious beliefs, but was told that it would be removed involuntarily against her will if she didn’t comply, according to the lawsuit.

ADC Michigan Director Fatini Abdrabboh, one of Aldhalimi’s lawyers, said her client’s experience isn’t isolated, nor is it significant only for Muslim women.

“We must not live in a society where the oppression of women or religious minorities can be condoned, especially when this violation is committed by the very entity charged with protecting them – the Dearborn Police Department,” Abdrabboh said in a statement.

ADC Michigan and others said that with growing populations of Muslims in areas like Dearborn Heights, Hamtramack, Canton and Dearborn – which has the largest concentration of Arab-Americans in the United States – police agencies need more training in cultural sensitivities like hijab.

How Muslim women wearing hijab are treated also has important implications for other religious minorities, attorneys said, including a Sikh, who wears a turban, or an Orthodox Jewish man, who wears a kippah.

Other Lawsuits

Raghdaa Ali of Dearborn Heights, a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, was denied entry to a cash advance store in Inkster last summer because she refused to remove her Islamic headscarf in compliance with posted requirements that customers remove hats and sunglasses for security reasons. Ali tried to explain her religious objections, but was told police would be called if she didn’t leave.

“I felt really hurt that day,” Ali, a native of Iraq, told the Detroit Free Press. “I’m a U.S. citizen and should not be treated differently because of my religion. This is pure discrimination against hijab.”

Muslim women say that if they aren’t allowed to wear hijab for booking photos, as the Michigan Secretary of State’s office allows for driver’s license photos, their cases should at least be assigned to female officers.

“These are constitutional violations,” Canton attorney Nabih Ayad, who has handled several hijab cases in recent years, told the Free Press. “You have to respect the right to wear religious attire.”

Ayad filed a lawsuit last month against the Oceana County Sheriff’s Department on behalf of Fatme Dakroub, of Dearborn, who was arrested while on vacation with her family in May and charged with speeding in a parking lot and for driving with a suspended license.

In her lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Dakroub makes similar allegations of being asked to remove her hijab in the presence of male officers. She explained the religious significance of the headscarf, then asked for a female officer to oversee her booking, “but was told that having a female officer was not an option,” the lawsuit said.

Instead, she faced further humiliation when she held for three hours without her hijab in a holding cell next to male inmates, some of whom made passes at her.

Below is the petition filed on behalf of Maha Aldhalimi’s in U.S. District Court.

Aldhalimi v City of Dearborn Et Al Complaint