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The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations this week demanded a public apology and monetary settlement from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly forcibly removing a Muslim woman’s headscarf during processing at the jail.
CAIR also asked the county Board of Supervisors to “take action” against what it says was a violation of the woman’s religious beliefs, constitutional rights and dignity after her headscarf — or hajib — was allegedly “violently yanked’ off her head at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas.
The Sheriff’s Office said that it reviewed surveillance footage of the woman’s processing and that force was not used.
“In fact the complainant was asked to remove it herself,” said spokesperson Deputy Felicia Segura in an email.
The woman, Asia Aden, says she requested to keep her hajib on because it was against her religious beliefs to remove it in the presence of men.
“I have always held law enforcement in high regard for the important work they do,” said Aden in a statement released by CAIR. “Unfortunately, that has changed as this traumatic experience has broken me to my core.”
Aden said the alleged action left her humiliated and disgraced, especially after she had to go without a head covering for nearly three days. She also said she would have worn an alternative head covering and asked to either have her hajib returned or to be given some sort of replacement.
CAIR said this is the second time this has happened to someone in detention in the county, and that the Sheriff’s Office promised to implement policy changes and training protocols in 2021.
“We are now questioning their effectiveness,” said CAIR senior civil rights attorney Jeffrey Wang in the organization’s statement.
“The Sheriff’s Office collaborated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) after the past concern in 2021,” said Segura. “Based on that collaboration, the Sheriff’s Office updated its Religious Practices policy to ensure that anyone wearing a Hijab, Kufi, Turban or Yarmulke will be reasonably accommodated, subject to the compelling interest for facility security or to prevent self-harm. The booking staff was educated on the policy update.”
The policy in question states that “Inmates that practice a religion that requires particular modes of dress, garments, headgear, etc., other than standard-issue clothing, will be accommodated subject to the compelling government interest in maintaining facility security, including identifying inmates and detecting contraband. Religious garments may only be denied when doing so would be the least restrictive means of achieving those interests.”
The Sheriff’s Office policy directly addresses how to carry out intake for women in hajibs, stating that guards can ask head coverings to be removed, but that the inmate must be offered the opportunity to have the search conducted in a private space out of view of members of the opposite gender.
Jails can keep a person’s hajib, but “shall provide the inmate with a jail-issued garment (e.g., jail-issued head scarf),” reads the policy.
Asked if the jail honored its policy to remove the hajib out of the presence of men and to give Aden a jail-issued head covering, Segura said she did not have that information at this time, “but when it becomes available, I will let you know.”
