Lawsuit alleges O.C. deputies forced 2 Muslim women to remove their hijab

Two Muslim women arrested during a pro-Palestinian encampment protest at UC Irvine last year are suing the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, alleging deputies wrongfully forced them to remove their hijabs while in custody.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group known as CAIR-LA, announced the federal lawsuit with Asian Law Caucus, during a Tuesday news conference at its Anaheim office.

“If this country means what it says about freedom of religion,” said Dina Chehata, CAIR-LA’s civil rights managing attorney, “then it must mean it for Muslim women, not just in theory, not just in court, but also in the fluorescent-lit backrooms of detention facilities when no one is watching and no cameras are rolling.”

Salma Nasoordeen, a youth coordinator with CAIR-LA, and Hasna “Shenai” Aini, a UC Irvine student at the time, attended the protest on May 15, 2024 when personnel with the O.C. Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement agencies clad in riot gear swept through the encampment after an unlawful assembly declaration and arrested 47 people.

Court documents allege that a deputy “repeatedly and deliberately stomped” on Aini’s hijab during her arrest, which caused it to unravel and exposed her hair to male officers and activists in the area. Fox 11 and KTLA 5 news channels also broadcast the arrest to a wider audience.

“My hijab, my hijab,” Aini pleaded, to no avail.

Aini alleged that a woman deputy at the Orange County Intake Release Center demanded she remove her hijab during a search. The headscarf remained off when a deputy took her booking photo. Both incidents, lawyers allege, happened within the possible sight of male deputies.

“My hijab is the ultimate sign of my faith,” Aini said during the press conference. “This was an attack, not only on myself, but every Muslim woman on that day.”

Nasoordeen alleged that a woman deputy ordered her to remove her Adidas hijab and additional religious headscarf during a search in an area accessible to men. Like Aini, she said her booking photo was taken without the head covering, allegedly within the possible view of male deputies.

“When I was asked to remove my hijab, I was shocked,” Nasoordeen said. “I felt helpless and embarrassed.”

Filed on Monday, the complaint names the County of Orange, O.C. Sheriff Don Barnes and unnamed deputies as defendants.

Carrie Braun, a sheriff’s department spokesperson, called the claims made during the news conference “misleading” and “inaccurate.”

“No women were required to remove their hijabs in front of male employees or male members of the public,” she said. “Women were asked to privately remove their hijabs only once while inside the jail facility for a booking photo, and this occurred with only female deputies present.”

The department has a policy in place on religious head coverings that requires any search needing the removal of them be done by deputies of the same gender in a private area out of the view of the opposite gender.

With regard to booking photos, the policy prohibits individuals from wearing religious head coverings but requires that the photographer be the same gender as the arrested person.

“Part of what we are arguing in our lawsuit as well is that the deputies are not being even properly trained on the policies on the books,” Chehata said. “The policy that exists does not go far enough, because it compels them to be photographed without their headscarf, which we believe is a very profound violation of their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The lawsuit argued that other law enforcement agencies, like the New York Police Department, allow for photos to be taken with religious head coverings on.

Attorneys for the two women also pointed to a lawsuit filed in 2007 against the O.C. Sheriff’s Department for religious discrimination after jailers allegedly ordered a Muslim woman to remove her hijab, asserting it could be used to choke someone.

The suit was settled in 2013 with an agreement from the sheriff’s department that Muslim women detainees would not be ordered to remove their hijabs within view of men and be provided with temporary headscarves when needed.

Belinda Escobosa litigated that case and she is an attorney in the current suit.

Braun told TimesOC the booking photos can’t be released under the California Public Records Act and that jail security video documented the booking process in question.

“False and divisive statements made to the public only serve to undermine trust and incite fear,” Braun said, adding that the sheriff’s department actively works with various religious groups.

Aini began wearing the hijab last year at UC Irvine while surrounded by a large Muslim community she didn’t grow up with. She decided to file suit so that other Muslim women who wear the hijab don’t have the same alleged experience with the sheriff’s department.

“A year later, I am still deeply affected,” Aini said. “I still hear my pleas to be covered, along with flashbacks reminding me that my religion was disrespected and I was spiritually harmed.”