- Muslim woman sues Rutherford County sheriff’s office in Tennessee for allegedly forcing her to remove hijab during booking photo after a traffic stop.
- Despite her appeals to her faith, she complied under duress; legal action is taken against the office for violating religious rights.
Sophia Johnston, a Muslim woman, is pursuing legal recourse against the Rutherford County sheriff and deputies for purportedly compelling her to remove her hijab for a booking photo. According to the filed complaint, the incident unfolded after Johnston was pulled over in Wilson County on Wednesday, August 23, due to a faulty taillight. Subsequently, officers uncovered an outstanding warrant tied to a six-year-old misdemeanor charge from Rutherford County, pertaining to driving with a suspended license.
At the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office, Johnston underwent the process of taking two mugshots: one sans her hijab, deemed not for public dissemination, and another with her hijab, intended to serve as her official booking image. However, when she was taken to the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office for booking, her experience took a different turn.
Recounting the incident, Johnston explained, “One of the officers told me, okay, as long as I take my fingerprints and my photo, then I can leave. So I said, ‘Okay,’ and she said, ‘Well, I don’t think you’ll be able to wear your hijab inside the picture.'” Despite her pleas to uphold her faith, Johnston was informed again that her headscarf must be removed, with the rationale that religion can be exploited as a pretext for impersonation.
In her own words, Johnston expressed the profound humiliation and vulnerability she felt, likening the experience to a sense of nakedness due to the significance of the hijab in Muslim tradition. She detailed how she was warned of potential extended detention if she declined to partake in the booking photo process—a predicament she, as a mother of eight children, could not afford.
Ultimately, under duress, Johnston conceded and removed her hijab in front of a female deputy for the photograph, although male officers glimpsed her without the head covering before she could put it back on. Overwhelmed by emotion, she recounted the moment she quickly re-draped herself and burst into tears, sharing that the ordeal was treated with indifference.
For Johnston, the prospect of her photo without the hijab being publicly accessible was a nightmarish scenario, prompting her to leave the office as expeditiously as possible. Representing Johnston, Daniel Horwitz disclosed that the mugshot had been temporarily removed. Horwitz underlined the legal protection provided by the First Amendment, alongside state and federal laws safeguarding religious practices from undue governmental interference.
Horwitz asserted, “People have a right to practice their religion without unreasonable governmental interference, and it is unacceptable that any government entity would contravene those rights, especially given the robust protections that Tennessee, in particular, affords.”
He refuted any contention that the hijab removal was warranted in this context, highlighting the unnecessary coercion employed. Horwitz emphasized, “The fact of the matter is you do not need to require a Muslim woman to remove her headscarf in order to take a booking photo, and they required her to do so here under threat of indefinite incarceration.”
As of now, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office has not responded to inquiries seeking commentary or an interview.
