Arizon State University police sued for forcibly removing protesters' hijabs

Four women who took part in the student encampment for Gaza at Arizona State University (ASU) in April of last year are now suing the campus police department, among other individuals, for forcibly removing their hijabs and keeping them off for more than 24 hours after they were arrested.

The news was first reported by The Arizona Republic on Tuesday, citing court documents filed in July. 

ASU police, acting under the orders of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, were told to remove the hijabs of those who were arrested when the encampment was raided early in the morning on 26 April 2024 and broken up, the documents showed.

Dozens of protesters were charged with criminal trespass and booked into jail that evening.

Among them were the four hijab-wearers who were then forced to travel to the jail without any form of a head covering: Fatima Jabardi, Noor Odeh, Noura Abdalla and Salam Jabaieh. 

The documents filed said they all continue to suffer "mental anguish, physical and emotional distress, humiliation and embarassment" from being exposed during their arrest, and for more than 24 hours after that until they were released from jail.

"At no time were Plaintiffs violent, disruptive or dangerous," the documents filed said. "At no time did Plaintiffs assault, harass or otherwise intimidate anyone."

The hijab is a head covering worn by Muslim women in public as a symbol of modesty and privacy or cultural identity. It is worn around men who are not considered their "mahram" - a male family member with whom marriage is considered unlawful, such as a father, brother or uncle.

It has long been considered a violation of US religious and civic rights to compel women in hijabs to remove them in front of male strangers.

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"This is not about a trespass. This is about speech," said David Chami, the attorney representing the women, as cited by AZFamily, the CBS News affiliate in the state capital Phoenix.

"There was absolutely no justification for stripping those women of their religious head coverings," he added. "It would be like stripping somebody who's not a Muslim, a woman having her top and bra removed in public. I mean, it is that level of humiliation."

The Arizona Republic noted that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is meant to provide "reasonable accommodations" to people in custody, per its own policy, which states that removal of a religious head covering "shall last only as long as is reasonable, under the totality of circumstances". 

When a person is arrested, a booking photo (or mugshot, colloquially) is taken to identify them and keep a record. Women who wear the hijab are generally identified by their hijabs. They wear them in their driver's license photographs, passport photos and in public when they leave their homes. 

So it's counterintuitive when law enforcement forces women to remove their religious headcoverings, one woman who experienced a similar ordeal with law enforcement in St. Paul, Minnesota, previously explained to Middle East Eye.

Hijab removals by police in the US are not infrequent - they have taken place in recent years in New York, California and Arizona, among other states. Most cases have been privately settled.

The four plaintiffs in the current case against ASU police are seeking both financial damages and punitive damages, as well as a declaration that their constitutional rights were violated.