Muslim woman forced to take off hijab for police mugshot or stay in jail, lawsuit 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.
Ultimately, Johnston was made to take off her hijab in the presence of five men, according to the complaint.
After the photo was taken, Johnston burst out crying, according to WKRN-TV, which first reported the lawsuit.
“I’m just feeling so humiliated and just scared and alone and, you know, naked basically,” she told the TV station.
Johnston is suing Rutherford County, Sheriff Mike Fitzhugh, Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief of Law Enforcement Britt Reed, Deputy Chief of Rutherford County Adult Detention Center Kevin Henderson and deputy Kaitlynn Laird, Johnston’s intake officer.
Her lawsuit, which seeks at least $200,000 in damages, accuses the defendants of violating her civil rights.
McClatchy News contacted the county and the sheriff’s office for comment on Aug. 31 and didn’t receive immediate responses.
Johnston initially allowed to wear hijab
On Aug. 23, Johnston was pulled over for a broken tail light in Wilson County before she was transferred to the custody of Rutherford County on an outstanding warrant for the misdemeanor charge, according to the complaint, which says she doesn’t recall the charge.
Johnston was initially booked by the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office, where she took mugshots with and without her hijab on, the complaint says.
After the first mugshot was taken without her hijab by a Wilson County intake officer, Johnston pleaded with the officer to allow her to retake the photo with the headwear on due to her religious beliefs, according to the complaint.
“Because there was no valid or compelling penological need to deny Mrs. Johnston’s request for a religious accommodation, the Wilson County intake officer agreed to do so,” the complaint says.
As a result, Wilson County used the photo of Johnston wearing her hijab as her official mugshot, according to the complaint.
Rutherford County forces her to remove hijab, publishes mugshot
After Johnston was transferred to Rutherford County, where she was forced to remove her hijab and take her mugshot, the image was uploaded into an online database, the complaint says.
Now it’s a “public record that is available to any citizen in Tennessee,” the complaint notes, just like all mugshots taken in the state.
The publication and dissemination of her booking photo has caused Johnston great emotional distress, including triggering her post-traumatic stress disorder, the complaint says.
“Citizens have a right to practice their religion without unreasonable governmental interference, and it is unacceptable that any government entity would contravene those rights, especially given the robust protections that Tennessee, in particular, affords them,” Daniel Horwitz, an attorney of Horwitz Law PLLC representing Johnston, told McClatchy News in a statement on Aug. 31.
Firm attorneys Lindsay Smith and Melissa Dix are also representing Johnston in the case.
With the lawsuit, Johnston hopes for the court to issue an injunction requiring her booking photo to be expunged.
The case comes nearly three years after a settlement was reached in a federal lawsuit filed in New York that accused the New York Police Department of forcing Muslim women to remove their hijabs for booking photos, according to USA Today.
As part of the settlement, the NYPD will not make people remove religious headwear for mugshots, the outlet reported.
Rutherford County is about 40 miles southeast of Davidson County, where Nashville is located.
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