LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Advocates say a Muslim woman arrested in Lexington Monday night was forced to remove her hijab during booking at the Fayette County Detention Center.
"She said, 'I'm Muslim. I'm wearing this for religious reasons. Please respect my rights,' but her rights were sadly not respected," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
A Muslim woman who lives and works in Kentucky as a physician, was stopped by University of Kentucky Police Monday night, reportedly because she didn't have her headlights on. Police said there was a warrant out for her arrest related to an unpaid fine from 2021. CAIR said she had delayed resolving the issue at the time due to Covid. When the officer brought her to the Fayette County Detention Center, though, Mitchell said officials at the detention center forced her to remove her hijab for a booking photo.
"She did the right thing, she said, 'Can I go to a private place? Can you do this outside the presence of people who are men who are not related to me?' That is something that is often requested, but sadly that didn't happen in this case. Her hijab was still removed in the presence of men who were able to see her, which is a violation of her religious beliefs and an unnecessary violation at that," Mitchell said.
CAIR said the charges related to the unpaid fine were dismissed before her scheduled arraignment.
"She was terrified. She was terrorized, in her own words, by the situation," said the woman's attorney, Roula Allouch. "She's somebody who was put in a situation and had this occur in her adopted hometown. She's an immigrant woman. She's living here, working at the university. She's a professional. To have this experience has been really traumatizing for her."
Allouch is a former chair of CAIR's national board and graduated from UK.
"You know, I've been involved in situations like this across the country, but for it to happen here in my hometown… I'm a UK grad. Anywhere I go across the country or around the world, I talk about being a Wildcat and my love for the university and my city and my state, so it was really jarring to know that that occurred, that that happened and occurred to somebody here in our area," Allouch said.
University of Kentucky Police issued a statement Friday afternoon, saying the officer followed standard protocol for the traffic stop and the arrest and did not ask the woman to remove her hijab. They said once that officer transferred the woman to jail officials, UK Police involvement in the case ended. They said they're sorry for the concerns she expressed about her experience at the jail and that their goal is to meet the highest ethical standards. CAIR said many jails have policies addressing situations like this for people of many faiths and they want to be sure one exists here too.
"The agencies should announce that they are adopting a written policy that if someone comes into their facility, whether a Muslim, a Christian, a Jewish person, anyone who comes in wearing a religious article of clothing, that they will be allowed to keep that on if it's safe to do so and if for some reason it is not safe to do so, they will be allowed to only take that off when they absolutely have to, and in a private setting where it will not force them to unnecessarily violate their sincerely-held beliefs," Mitchell said.
Allouch said she's grateful for her client coming forward.
"She's going through the process of experiencing the feelings that one has after an incident like this. She's a strong woman, she's resilient. I'm proud of her for standing up for herself and her rights. One of the things that's so difficult for someone to do is to say, 'This happened to me and this was wrong'. I'm personally very grateful for her stepping up and doing that and it allows all of those institutions now the opportunity to take corrective action and to ensure that these types of things don't happen in the future," Allouch said.
A representative for the Fayette County Detention Center did not return a call for comment.
