Muslim woman says deputy stomped on hijab, left her exposed. She’s suing in CA
Two Muslim women arrested while participating in a pro-Palestinian protest at a University of California campus filed a federal lawsuit against a sheriff’s office, accusing deputies of violating their religious rights by forcing them to take off their hijabs in jail.
One of the women, Shenai Aini, 22, of Orange County, was protesting as a UC Irvine student when multiple male law enforcement officers apprehended her during the May 15, 2024 campus demonstration, according to the lawsuit, which is represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Asian Law Caucus.
A complaint filed June 30 says the arresting officers, including Orange County sheriff’s deputies, first threw Aini to the ground, then one grabbed her arm to drag her “to apply zip ties.”
As she was dragged, Aini says an Orange County sheriff’s deputy “repeatedly stomped on (her) hijab…causing it to unravel and leaving her exposed and in plain view of men outside of her immediate family.”
Having her hair seen by male officers and protesters was humiliating for Aini, as it violated her religious beliefs, according to the complaint. Like her fellow plaintiff, Salma Nasoordeen, Aini wears a hijab when around men who are not in her family, in accordance with their Islamic faith.
“Due to the actions of the OCSD deputy, my exposed hair was broadcast for the world to see,” Aini said in a July 2 news release issued by CAIR-CA.
Her arrest was filmed and televised by local TV news crews, according to the complaint.
In jail, Aini’s religious rights were violated further, the filing says, when a female deputy required her to take off her hijab to search her. Afterward, Aini had to remove her hijab again for a mugshot, according to the complaint.
“In the process of being booked, I was forced to be exposed in view of males and to have my photo taken without my hijab against my will,” Aini said.
In a statement to McClatchy News on July 2, Orange Sheriff’s Department public affairs director Carrie Braun said deputies helped campus police enforce a dispersal order during the UC Irvine protest and denied the lawsuit’s allegations.
She said the agency “upholds individuals’ rights to protest lawfully and peace-fully, as well as the First Amendment right to religious freedom.”
“No women were required to remove their hijabs in front of male employees or male members of the public,” Braun added. “Women were asked to privately remove their hijabs only once while inside the jail facility for a booking photo, and this occurred with only female deputies present.”
But the lawsuit says a female deputy “demanded” the other plaintiff, Nasoordeen, who was taken into custody within an hour of arriving at the protest, to take off her hijab for her booking photo at jail.
Nasoordeen, 26, of Orange County, felt pressured into complying, according to the complaint.
“I’ve never had to remove my hijab for a government identification photo,” Nasoordeen said in a statement shared by CAIR-LA. “I kept thinking, ‘Is this allowed?’”
Nasoordeen works as the youth coordinator for CAIR-LA, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In the complaint, attorneys from CAIR-CA and the Asian Law Caucus wrote that by photographing Aini and Nasoordeen without their hijabs, the sheriff’s department has created a “public record that exposed each woman in a manner deeply contrary to her religious exercise.”
According to Braun, the department has not made Nasoordeen or Aini’s booking photos public. She said state law prevents the agency from doing so.
During a July 2 news conference held at CAIR’s office in Anaheim, CAIR-LA attorney Dina Chehata said “It is not for the state to decide when it (a hijab) can be removed,” according to the Orange County Register.
Braun said “the account of events” detailed at the conference were “misleading and inaccurate.”
In a similar, unrelated case in Tennessee, a Muslim woman sued deputies in Rutherford County, accusing them of forcing her to remove her hijab for a booking photo. The county later paid Sophia Johnston a $100,000 settlement, McClatchy News reported in January 2024.
Johnston was threatened with indefinite jail time if she didn’t remove her hijab, according to her federal lawsuit, which accused deputies of publishing her booking photo online and denying her request for religious accommodation.
Aini and Nasoordeen, with their lawsuit, demand a jury trial.
“A year later, I am still deeply affected,” Aini said. “I still hear my pleas to be covered, along with flashbacks reminding me that my religion was disrespected and I was spiritually harmed and exposed without my hijab when my arrest was broadcast to the public.”
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages and judgment against Orange County deputies for violations of state and federal law.
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 12:05 PM with the headline "Muslim woman says deputy stomped on hijab, left her exposed. She’s suing in CA."
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