Muslim women sue over discrimination in California

One lawsuit claims that police in Long Beach forcibly removed a woman’s headscarf while another suit alleges that a group of women were kicked out of a Laguna Beach coffee house for their religion.

LOS ANGELES // Muslim women were discriminated against in separate incidents because of their religion and for wearing the hijab, two lawsuits filed in California have claimed.

One of the suits claimed that police in Long Beach forcibly removed a woman’s headscarf while another suit alleged that a group of women were kicked out of a Laguna Beach coffee house for being Muslim.

According to the complaint against the city of Long Beach and its police department, Kirsty Powell and her husband were pulled over by two officers while driving home in May of last year.

She was subsequently arrested on two outstanding warrants – one linked to her sister allegedly falsely using her identity and one in relation to a 2002 shoplifting incident at a grocery store.

Ms Powell, who is African American, alleged that while being booked at the police station, one of the officers forcibly removed her headscarf, telling her she was “not allowed to wear her hijab”.

The suit stated that Ms Powell “suffered and continues to suffer extreme shame, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress” as a result of her experience. “The manner in which Mrs Powell was treated by Long Beach Police Department [LBPD] officers was simply a show of authority over a woman of colour who was unable to protect herself, and is another example of the type of discrimination faced by women who wear a hijab,” said Yalda Satar, lawyer for the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which filed the suit on behalf of Ms Powell.

LBPD said that Ms Powell’s hijab was taken off in line with the department’s policy to remove certain items from inmates – including belts, shoe laces and head coverings – for their own protection.

In a separate lawsuit also filed on Monday, a group of seven women claimed that they were ejected from Urth Caffe, in Laguna Beach, last month because they were Muslim.

The women, six of whom wear the headscarf, alleged that management had asked them to vacate their table on April 22 on grounds that the restaurant was busy.

When the women refused to leave, the coffee house called in the police.

Dan Stormer, whose law firm is representing the women, said it was clear his clients were targeted because of their religion, a charge denied by the restaurant owner.

* Agence France-Presse