Two Muslim women are suing the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, alleging they were forced to remove their religious head coverings while they were in custody and photographed in front of other prisoners and sheriff’s deputies.
The suit was filed this week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations on behalf of Serine Abuelhawa, 30, of Portland and Marjannah Hassan, 19, of Hillsboro.
They allege the sheriff’s office violated their religious freedom and want a judge to order the sheriff’s office to destroy any mugshots of the women without their hijabs and remove the photos from any law enforcement databases.
The suit also urges the court to order the sheriff’s office to change its policy to accommodate hijabs.
Their Islamic faith requires them to wear a hijab and clothing covering their full body when in mixed-gender spaces outside of their immediate family, the suit says.
Their driver’s licenses and passports depict them wearing hijabs, and other jails and prisons allow Muslim women to wear hijabs while in custody, including in booking photographs, the suit says.
“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 on a second-degree disorderly conduct allegation during a demonstration 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 a group of about 10 people who ran into the road and lay down in front of the band, linked arms and shouted “Free, free Palestine” and then refused police commands to get out of the street, a probable cause affidavit said. The district attorney’s office dropped the charges against the two women two months later.
After Hassan was forced to remove her hijab in custody, a deputy then offered her a ham sandwich for lunch, which violates her halal diet that forbids any pork, the suit says.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office declined comment on the pending litigation, according to John Plock, sheriff’s deputy and office spokesperson.
It’s the second federal suit filed in Oregon this week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which seeks to protect the civil rights of American Muslims.
An earlier suit filed against state prison officials alleges three Muslim men have been refused meals while in custody that adhere to Islamic dietary laws in violation of their constitutional rights.
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