Muslim woman jailed for refusing to remove hijab

DOUGLASVILLE: A Muslim woman was jailed on Tuesday after a judge found her in contempt of court for refusing to remove her hijab, the head covering worn by Muslim women.

Lisa Valentine, also known by her Islamic name, Miedah, 40, was arrested at the municipal court for violating a court policy of no headgear, said Chris Womack, deputy chief of the Douglasville police.

She was taken before Judge Keith Rollins, who ordered her held in jail for 10 days. However, her husband said she was released on Tuesday evening. The reason for her release wasn’t immediately clear.

Last week, the same judge apparently threw out another Muslim woman from his courtroom. Sabreen Abdul Rahman, 55, said she had gone to court with her son when she was asked to take off her scarf.

“I can’t. I am Muslim,” she mouthed silently to the bailiff, who then removed her from the courtroom, Rahman said. “This is a religious right,” she said. “This is unconstitutional. And humiliating.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C.,
denounced the arrest as a violation of civil liberties. Last year, CAIR officials met with city and court officials in Valdosta to discuss religious attire in courtrooms after Aniisa Karim, a 20-year-old Muslim woman, was barred from entering a courtroom to settle a traffic ticket because of her hijab.

Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper called the Douglasville incident ‘troubling’. “When somebody is denied access to our judicial system based on religiously mandated attire, then what does that say? No Muslim woman can have access to a courtroom in Douglasville, Georgia?” Hooper said.”

A judge does have the right to set decorum in a courtroom, but you can’t use those standards to violate someone’s legal rights.” Islam sees Hijab as an obligatory code of dress. Valentine plans to file a lawsuit.