New York City has agreed to pay $17.5 million in a class action lawsuit filed by two Muslim women who claim their religious liberties were violated when police ordered them to remove their hijabs for mug pictures after being arrested.
The tentative financial settlement, which has yet to be approved by a district court judge, was filed in Manhattan federal court on Friday, and more than 3,600 people are eligible for payouts under the agreement.
Following their detention for violating false protective orders, Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz filed the lawsuit in 2018. The previous year saw their arrests in Manhattan and Brooklyn, respectively.
They claimed that having to remove the head coverings worn by Muslim women in accordance with Islamic tradition left them feeling ashamed and traumatized. Their lawyers compared removing the hijabs to being strip-searched.
“I felt naked when they forced me to take off my hijab,” Clark said in a statement her lawyers released. “I’m not sure if words can capture how exposed and violated I felt.”
“I’m so proud today to have played a part in getting justice for thousands of New Yorkers.”
After deducting legal fees and costs, payouts will total approximately $13.1 million, with the possibility of increasing if enough of the more than 3,600 qualified class members file claims. Each beneficiary will receive between $7,824 and $13,125.
Albert Fox Cahn, a lawyer for Clark and Aziz, described the settlement as a watershed moment for New Yorkers’ privacy and religious rights.
“The NYPD should never have stripped these religious New Yorkers of their head coverings and dignity,” Cahn stated, according to the New York Times.
The deal, he added, “sends a powerful message that the NYPD can’t violate New Yorkers’ First Amendment rights without paying a price.”
In response to the lawsuit, the New York Police Department decided in 2020 to let men and women wear head coverings during mugshots as long as their faces were visible.
“This settlement resulted in a positive reform for the NYPD,” said Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesperson for the city’s legal department. “The agreement carefully balances the department’s respect for firmly held religious beliefs with the important law enforcement need to take arrest photos.”
The action comes after a 2018 case where a judge ordered New York City to pay $180,000 to three Muslim women who had to take off their hijabs for mugshots.
