New York City will have to pay $17.5 million into a fund available to Muslim women as part of a federal settlement deal after the NYPD forced them to remove their hijabs for mug shots.
The preliminary settlement deal, filed in court on Friday, will permit impacted women to seek $7,824 to $13,125 in damages for each occasion they had to remove their religious head garment during booking in the period between March 2014 and August 2021. The financial arrangement represents the upshot of a lawsuit two Muslim women, Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, brought against the city in 2018, arguing the police department had violated their civil and constitutional rights by forcing them to expose their hair for a photograph following their arrest.
Their initial complaint describes how each wept uncontrollably after officers forced them to remove their hijabs in separate arrest incidents, leaving their hair visible to unfamiliar men, which they said not only went against their religious beliefs but left them feeling “violated” and “broken.”
Assisting the women in the case were Muslim advocacy groups Turning Point for Women and Families and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Of the $17.5 million figure, $13,125,000 will be available to any women uninvolved in the suit who successfully file claims, while the two plaintiffs will receive $35,000 a piece. The remainder will go toward attorneys’ fees and toward operating the fund itself.
The suit notes that the city has already altered its previous policy of requiring the removal of headscarves, except in cases where “specific evidence would be obscured by a head covering,” or if the person was arrested without a headscarf in a location other than their residence.
