https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article278818294.html
A devout Muslim woman was threatened with indefinite jail time if she didn’t take off her hijab for a booking photo in Tennessee, a new federal lawsuit says.
Forcing an observant Muslim woman to remove her hijab in front of men who are not family is “humiliating and degrading,” according to the lawsuit, which likened doing so to making a woman remove her shirt in public.
No man outside of Sophia Johnston’s family has seen her hair since she was a child — as that would go against her religious beliefs — until Aug. 23, when she was booked in Rutherford County on a six-year-old outstanding warrant for driving on a suspended license, a complaint filed Aug. 29 in Nashville federal court says.
Johnston, who is white and Black, is a proud American Muslim, she told McClatchy News on Aug. 31.
On Aug. 23, Johnston unsuccessfully pleaded with Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office deputies to allow her to keep her hijab on for her mugshot, according to the complaint. The deputies are accused of denying her request for a religious accommodation.
After an intake officer warned Johnston she’d stay in jail until she took the photo without her hijab, she saw no other choice but to comply, as she has eight children and “could not afford to be incarcerated indefinitely,” the complaint says….
A devout Muslim woman was threatened with indefinite jail time if she didn’t take off her hijab for a booking photo in Tennessee, a new federal lawsuit says.
Forcing an observant Muslim woman to remove her hijab in front of men who are not family is “humiliating and degrading,” according to the lawsuit, which likened doing so to making a woman remove her shirt in public.
No man outside of Sophia Johnston’s family has seen her hair since she was a child — as that would go against her religious beliefs — until Aug. 23, when she was booked in Rutherford County on a six-year-old outstanding warrant for driving on a suspended license, a complaint filed Aug. 29 in Nashville federal court says.
Johnston, who is white and Black, is a proud American Muslim, she told McClatchy News on Aug. 31.
On Aug. 23, Johnston unsuccessfully pleaded with Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office deputies to allow her to keep her hijab on for her mugshot, according to the complaint. The deputies are accused of denying her request for a religious accommodation.
After an intake officer warned Johnston she’d stay in jail until she took the photo without her hijab, she saw no other choice but to comply, as she has eight children and “could not afford to be incarcerated indefinitely,” the complaint says….
