[Peace-discuss] GA judge jails Muslim woman for hijab

[Ricky Baldwin]

You don't have to be Muslim or even pro-religion to see multiple problems with this kind of pattern.  Came up a couple years ago when France tried banning the hijab - in schools, I believe.  In some countries they say you have to wear it, in some they say you can't.  Seems to me, in general, we should support a person who wants to wear it where they say you can't, and support a person who doesn't want to where they say you must.

 Ricky


"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn



Ga. judge
jails Muslim woman over head scarf
By DIONNE WALKER, Associated Press Writer 12-17-08
ATLANTA – A
judge ordered the arrest of a Muslim woman who refused to take off her head
scarf at a court security
checkpoint.
The judge ordered Lisa Valentine, 40, to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court,
said police in Douglasville,
a city of about 20,000 people on Atlanta's
west suburban outskirts.
Valentine violated a court policy that prohibits people from wearing any
headgear in court, police said after the Tuesday arrest.
The Washington-based
Council on American-Islamic Relations urged federal authorities
to investigate the incident as well as others in Georgia.
"I just felt stripped of my civil, my human rights," Valentine
told The Associated Press on Wednesday from her home, after she said she was
unexpectedly released once CAIR got involved. Jail officials declined to say
why she was freed.
Municipal Court Judge
Keith Rollins said that "it would not be appropriate"
for him to comment on the case.
Last year, a judge in Valdosta in southern Georgia barred
a Muslim woman from entering a courtroom because she would not remove her head
scarf. There have been similar cases in other states, including Michigan, where a Muslim woman in Detroit filed a federal lawsuit in February
2007 after a judge dismissed her small-claims court case when she refused to
remove a head and face veil.
Valentine's husband, Omar Hall, said his wife was accompanying her nephew to
a traffic citation hearing when officials stopped her at the metal detector and
told her she would not be allowed in the courtroom with the head scarf, known
as a hijab.
Hall said Valentine, an insurance underwriter, told the bailiff that she had
been in courtrooms before with the scarf on and that removing it would be a
religious violation. When she turned to leave and uttered an expletive, Hall
said a bailiff handcuffed her and took her before the judge.


      
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