NYC agrees to pay $17.5m to thousands of Muslims police ordered to remove their hijabs for mugshots after two women arrested ‘on bogus charges by abusive family’ sued

New York City has agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by two Muslim women who were forced to remove their headscarves because of police mugshots.

Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz filed the class action lawsuit in 2018, claiming they felt embarrassed and exposed and wanted their treatment stripped down.

‘When they forced me to take off my hijab, it felt like I was naked. I’m not sure words can express how exposed and violated I felt,” Clark said.

“I am so proud today that I played a role in getting justice for thousands of New Yorkers.”

Clark was arrested in Manhattan Family Court on January 9, 2017, for allegedly violating a bogus protective order filed by her abusive former husband.

The complaint alleged that the man “fabricated these allegations to secure immigration status as an alleged victim of domestic violence.”

Clark was arrested another time on the same trumped-up charges, but they were dismissed.

The lawsuit said officers at police headquarters at One Police Plaza threatened to prosecute Clark, who cried after ignoring her pleas, if she did not remove her head covering.

She claimed a police supervisor “made numerous hostile comments about Muslims” after she refused to remove the hijab.

“Male officers repeatedly touched Ms. Clark even though she explained that such contact violated her religion and denied her a place to wash for prayer and a place to pray,” the lawsuit said.

They agreed to have a female officer take the mugshot, but male officers watched on a security camera and five of them were shown the photo afterwards.

The lawsuit alleged that Clark was so “agitated and distraught by the forced removal of her hijab” while in custody that she was too afraid to wear one in public for the next month.

Clark said she was “haunted” by the photo, which was in the NYPD database and was repeatedly viewed by male strangers.

Aziz was arrested after turning herself in to police in Brooklyn on August 30, 2017, after being accused of violating a bogus protection order filed by her sister-in-law.

The allegedly abusive sister-in-law repeatedly asked police to arrest Aziz and she eventually surrendered to arrest to refute the allegations.

Officers refused to allow her to pull the hijab back slightly to reveal her hairline, and “crying hysterically” she pulled it back around her neck.

According to the lawsuit, she felt heartbroken when her photo was taken in front of a dozen male police officers and more than 30 male inmates.

“Some male prisoners lining the corridor respected Ms Aziz’s distress, turned their backs in and tried to give her some privacy. None of the police officers in the hallway extended the same courtesy to Ms. Aziz,” the lawsuit said.

Ms Aziz had worn the face covering every day for almost seven years and “it’s part of her, she can’t describe herself without her hijab.”

According to the lawsuit, the experience “severely traumatized Ms. Aziz and caused her significant and lasting emotional distress.”

City officials initially defended the practice of forcing people to remove their head coverings for police photos. They said the policy struck a balance between respect for religious practices and “law enforcement officers’ legitimate need to take arrest photographs.”

But police changed the policy in 2020 as part of an initial settlement of the lawsuit, saying it would allow arrested people to keep their head coverings on for mugshots, with limited exceptions, such as if the head covering obscures the person’s facial features.

The new policy extended to other religious headgear, including wigs and yarmulkes worn by Jews and turbans worn by Sikhs.

Police may temporarily remove head coverings to search for weapons or contraband, but in private settings by same-sex officers.

The financial settlement was filed Friday and requires approval by Manhattan federal court Judge Analisa Torres.

City Law Department spokesman Nick Paolucci said the settlement resulted in positive reform of the police department and was “in the best interests of all parties.”

“The agreement carefully balances the Department’s respect for deeply held religious beliefs with law enforcement’s important need to conduct arrest photographs,” he said.

Andrew Wilson, who represents the women with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said: ‘Forcing someone to remove their religious clothing is like a strip search.

“This substantial settlement recognizes the profound damage to the dignity of those who wear religious head coverings as a result of forcible removal.”

Settlement proceeds will be distributed equally among up to 4,100 eligible class members who respond within a time period set by the judge.

There was a guaranteed minimum payment of $7,824 for each eligible person, which could go up to $13,125. The payout will be approximately $13.1 million, after deducting legal fees.

People who were forced to remove their head coverings between March 16, 2014 and August 23, 2021 are eligible for the settlement.