The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office to take action, including issuing a public apology and monetary settlement from the Sheriff’s Office after a Muslim woman had her religious headscarf (hijab) forcibly removed by Sheriff’s Office personnel while in custody—the second such incident in recent years.
CAIR-SFBA is calling on the County to act now as it has thus far failed to provide any substantive response to previous complaints about this latest matter.
When Asia Aden, a Muslim woman, was arrested and booked into Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas, California, Sheriff’s Office deputies ordered Aden to remove her hijab during the booking process. She informed a deputy that she needed to keep her hijab on as it was against her religious beliefs to uncover her hair in front of men. The deputy ignored the woman’s request and instead violently yanked her hijab off her head.
The woman also asked to be searched in private and out of the presence of male sheriff’s personnel. This request was similarly ignored.
During her detention at Elmwood, Aden made repeated attempts to explain to sheriff’s personnel that she wore a headscarf for religious purposes and that it should not be removed in the presence of unrelated males. She also made repeated requests to have her headscarf returned or be given an alternative head covering. None of these requests were granted.
Aden was forced to remain without any type of head covering during her nearly three days of detention at Elmwood.
This experience left the woman scarred and inflicted tremendous emotional distress and irreparable indignity that she will grapple with for the rest of her life, including reconsidering contacting law enforcement during times of danger.
In a statement, Aden said:
“I have always held law enforcement in high regard for the important and difficult work they do. Unfortunately, that has changed as this traumatic experience has broken me to my core. I decided to share my story in hopes of protecting every single American’s right to practice their religion freely—including a woman’s right to wear a hijab. No one should experience such a gross violation of their constitutional rights as I have.
“I want to prevent any other person from being humiliated and disgraced the way I was. I want to ensure that the Sheriff’s Office is held accountable for their actions.”
In a statement, CAIR-SFBA Senior Civil Rights Attorney Jeffrey Wang said:
“It is appalling that the Sheriff’s Office, which serves a geographic region where thousands of Muslims reside, would again permit its officers to strip a Muslim woman of her religious head covering and violate her Constitutional rights.
“This was not the first incident of its sort to occur at Elmwood, but it needs to be the last. Santa Clara County and the Sheriff’s Office promised to implement policy changes and training in 2021, and we are now left questioning their effectiveness.”
CAIR also offers an educational toolkit, called “A Correctional Institution’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices,” to help correctional officers and administrators gain a better understanding of Islam and Muslims.