Two Muslim women are suing the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, saying that they were forced to remove their religious head coverings while in jail and photographed in front of other inmates and deputies.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed the lawsuit this week on behalf of Serine Abuelhawa, 30, of Portland, and Marjannah Hassan, 19, of Hillsboro.
They claim the sheriff’s office violated their religious freedom and request that a judge order the sheriff’s department to destroy any mugshots of the ladies without hijabs and remove the pictures from any law enforcement databases.
The lawsuit also asks the court to require the sheriff’s office to modify its policy to accept hijabs.
According to the suit, their Islamic faith mandates them to wear a headscarf and attire that covers their entire body when in mixed-gender environments other than their close family.
Their driver’s licenses and passports show them wearing hijabs, and other jails and prisons allow Muslim women to wear hijabs while in custody, including booking photos, according to the lawsuit.
“Protecting Muslim women doesn’t require complex policies or major resources — it simply requires basic respect,” said Aya Beydon, a council attorney, said in a statement. “A private room, a female officer, and simply allowing them to wear their hijabs in the photo would have prevented this entirely. The law demands better, and so should we.”
Both women were arrested for second-degree disorderly conduct on June 8, 2024, during the Portland Rose Festival’s Grand Floral Parade in Northeast Portland.
As a U.S. Army band began marching south along Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the two were among about ten people who ran into the road, lay down in front of the band, linked arms, shouted “Free, free Palestine,” and then refused police orders to leave the street, according to a probable cause affidavit. Two months later, the district attorney’s office dismissed all charges against the two ladies.
After Hassan was forced to remove her hijab in jail, a deputy offered her a ham sandwich for lunch, which violated her halal diet, which prohibits pork, according to the lawsuit.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the ongoing dispute, according to John Plock, a sheriff’s deputy and office spokesperson.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has filed its second federal complaint in Oregon this week, seeking to safeguard American Muslims’ civil rights.
An earlier lawsuit filed against state prison officials argues that three Muslim males were denied meals that followed Islamic dietary restrictions while in jail, violating their constitutional rights.
