A California Muslim woman has been awarded $85,000 (£65,000) settlement after she was forced to remove her hijab.
In her lawsuit filed in 2016 against the city of Long Beach, Kirsty Powell said that a male police officer forcibly removed her headscarf in front of other male officers and inmates, telling her she was "not allowed to wear a hijab".
The African American was told that policemen were "allowed to touch women", and as a result she "suffered and continues to suffer extreme shame, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress", the suit filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on behalf of Powell stated.
It added that during her ordeal "she forced to sit in a cell feeling distraught, vulnerable and naked without her headscarf to everyone that passed".
"There really is no justification for taking off a person's religious headgear," Powell's attorney, Marwa Rifahie, said. [International Business Times] Read more
