NYC to Pay $17.5M in Hijab Mug Shot Settlement

New York City reached an agreement to pay $17.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by two Muslim women who said police violated their rights when they were to remove their hijabs before taking mug shots.

The settlement for the lawsuit, filed in 2018 by Jamila Clark and Arwa Aziz, still must be approved by Judge Analisa Torres in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, The New York Times reported.

The women said they felt shamed and exposed by the order to remove their hijabs, traditional head coverings. 

The NYPD, in response to the lawsuit, changed its policy in 2020 to allow religion-based head coverings to be worn in photographs if the garments did not obstruct faces. 

Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department on Friday said the lawsuit “resulted in a positive reform” for the police department. 

“The agreement carefully balances the department’s respect for firmly held religious beliefs with the important law enforcement need to take arrest photos,” he said. “This resolution was in the best interest of all parties.”

Damages from the settlement will total just over $13 million after lawyers’ fees and administrative costs are deducted and will be divided among at least 3,600 people, who each could qualify for compensation of $7,000 to $13,000.

According to the agreement, people who were forced to remove religious head coverings for police photos between March 6, 2014 and Aug. 23, 2021 could qualify. 

Clark, who was arrested on a violation of an order of protection in Manhattan in 2017, said she “wept and begged to put her hijab back on” after she was ordered to remove it. 

“When they forced me to take off my hijab, I felt as if I were naked; I’m not sure if words can capture how exposed and violated I felt,” Clark said in a statement. “I’m so proud today to have played a part in getting justice for thousands of New Yorkers.”

Aziz, arrested on a violation of a protection order eight months after Clark, said that when she was photographed in Brooklyn, she cried as she “stood with her back to the wall, in full view of approximately one dozen male N.Y.P.D. officers and more than 30 male inmates.”

“Forcing someone to remove their religious clothing is like a strip search,” said Andrew Wilson, one of the attorneys representing the women.

In 2018, New York City reached a $60,000 settlement with each of three Muslim women who had been forced to remove their hijabs for arrest photographs and said their religious rights were violated.