MN Muslim Woman Allegedly Forced to Remove Hijab For Mugshot Gets $120K Settlement

The Guardian has more details:

A Minnesota Muslim woman has received $120,000 to settle her lawsuit alleging she was forced to strip in jail and remove her hijab for a booking photo over a traffic offense, the woman and her attorneys said Tuesday.

Aida Shyef Al-Kadi appeared with her attorneys at the Minneapolis headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to announce the settlement approved last month.

Al-Kadi, 57, said her treatment at the Ramsey county jail in August 2013 was “one of the most humiliating and harmful experiences” of her life.

“I knew that I did not want any other Muslim woman to experience what I did,” she said.

A judge had issued a warrant for Al-Kadi’s arrest after she missed a court hearing over a traffic offense while taking her daughter to the hospital, the Star Tribune reported.

In her lawsuit, Al-Kadi argued that the county violated her constitutional rights and discriminated against her for her religious beliefs.

Al-Kadi was born and raised in Ohio. She moved to Minnesota in 2005 so her daughter could receive specialized medical care.

When Al-Kadi turned herself in, she said, she was told to remove her hijab and abaya, a long dress that covered her body, in front of male jailers. When she objected, she said, she was removed from the area and taken to a holding cell, where she removed her hijab in front of a male jailer.

Evening Standard via MSN also said:

A Muslim woman in Minnesota has received $120,000 after allegedly being asked to remove her hijab to take a booking photo at a prison.

In 2013, Aida Shyef Al-Kadi turned herself in after a warrant was issued for her arrest because of a missed court hearing over a traffic ticket she received while driving her daughter to hospital.

But she described her treatment in custody at Ramsey County Jail as “one of the most humiliating and harmful experiences” of her life, while appearing with her attorneys at the Minneapolis headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Al-Kadi said in a lawsuit that she was told to remove her hijab and abaya, in front of male jailers. When she objected, she was moved to a holding cell, where she took off her hijab in front of a male jailer.

She allegedly agreed to take off her headscarf for the booking photo, on the condition it would never be released to the public. But found it months later on a third-party website that charges users a fee to remove mugshots.

Officers gave Al-Kadi a bedsheet to use as a hijab, and she was told to remove her abaya and change into a jail uniform in front of two female officers.