The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the Knox County, Tennessee, Sheriff’s Office to stop taking unnecessary booking photos of Muslim women without their Islamic headscarf, or hijab, in response to an incident in which the jail publicly posted a photo of a Muslim woman arrested during a peaceful protest against the genocide in Gaza.
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BACKGROUNDER:
A Muslim woman is suing the Knox County Sheriff’s Office in federal court over a booking photo taken without her hijab after she was arrested on May 15 while participating in a pro-Palestinian protest. Layla Soliz was arrested with ten other protesters at the University of Tennessee’s campus on charges of criminal trespass. According to the lawsuit, officers took her booking photo with and without the hijab, a head covering worn by Muslim women as part of their faith, and the Department published the photo without hijab on its website. In doing so, Knox County Sheriff’s Department allegedly violated its own guidelines that state booking photos without religious coverings would not be published.
Though the department has since replaced the online booking photo with one of the women wearing a hijab, it has allegedly refused to remove the uncovered photo from its internal databases. Moreover, the Department allegedly refused to change its policy and will continue to photograph hijab-wearing Muslim women uncovered.
CAIR issued a similar call for justice and a policy change in October 2024 and is now calling on the public to also demand that the Knox County Sheriff’s Department address the violation of the woman’s religious beliefs when it published her booking photo without hijab online.
CAIR: CAIR Calls on Tennessee County Sheriff to Allow Hijab in Police Photos
SEE: Demonstrator sues Knox County Sheriff’s Office for publishing mug shot without her hijab
The Department has allegedly refused to take accountability for this clear violation of its own policies by ignoring and slow-walking Ms. Soliz and her attorney’s demand for justice. On December 16, 2024, Ms. Soliz’s attorneys filed an amended complaint and a memo in support of a motion for a preliminary injunction, which would require the Department to destroy Ms. Soliz’s uncovered booking photos in its internal databases.
CAIR often defends the right to wear hijab in the United States and to be free of harassment or discrimination for wearing Islamic attire.
CAIR also urged the Knox County Sheriff’s Office to make use of CAIR’s Corrections Officer’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices. The guide contains information on Islamic religious practices, dietary needs, and other aspects of free religious exercise in prison settings.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, [email protected]