The New York City Police Department has forced three different Muslim women to remove their hijabs to take mugshots over the pasty five years.
However, a federal court in Brooklyn ruled that local law enforcement was in the wrong for demanding the women remove their headscarves. According to Newsweek, three women will receive $60,000 each as a result of law enforcement's demands.
One of the three cases dates back to 2012, where a teenage girl—only identified in media reports as G.E.—refused to remove her hijab because she felt exposed. While initially, she was taken into a private room with a female police officer to take the photos, she was later brought to Brooklyn Central Booking and needed other mugshots taken, although there weren't any other women officers to guide her through the process.
In May 2015, the NYPD adopted new policies, where hijabs (along with other religious headgear) were to be removed in a private room with an officer of the same gender. Since then, G.E.'s lawyer filed two similar cases in 2015 and a year later in 2016.
While these incidents occurred before Trump was elected president in fall 2016, Muslim women are even more under siege in today's political climate, especially when it comes to headscarves. In November 2017, a Tennessee teacher was suspended for posting a Snapchat video of a student's hijab being removed from her head.
Meanwhile, the NYPD recently went after a precinct commander for tweeting about Black Lives Matter, if you're curious as to what they're up to.
