(Daily Pilot) Two Muslim women arrested during a pro-Palestinian encampment protest at UC Irvine last year are suing the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, alleging deputies wrongfully forced them to remove their hijabs while in custody.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group known as CAIR-LA, announced the federal lawsuit with Asian Law Caucus, during a Tuesday news conference at its Anaheim office.
“If this country means what it says about freedom of religion,” said Dina Chehata, CAIR-LA’s civil rights managing attorney, “then it must mean it for Muslim women, not just in theory, not just in court, but also in the fluorescent-lit backrooms of detention facilities when no one is watching and no cameras are rolling.”
