|
ACLU Finds Constitutional Violations in Strip-Search of Muslim Girl at Airport
By Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (IslamOnline) - She was flying home from Chicago last November when it began.
The Muslim woman passed through the metal detector without setting it off, but as she moved to pick up her bags from the other side of the x-ray belt, a guard asked her to stand aside, under orders from an Illinois National Guardsman present.
The guards began to search her, first with the metal detector wand, then with a pat-down, insisting that she remove her
hijab, or Islamic headcover.
But she refused to take it off in public, and so she was taken into a room and - after further insistence - left there with two female guards only, who proceeded to perform a frightening, humiliating and intrusive strip search. They searched through her hair, opening her sweater and unbuttoning her pants to feel around private areas.
At no time was she given any opportunity to turn back or refuse to go any further, and she was ordered around at every move.
In the end they did not find anything, and she had to ask the guards if she was free to go before she was released.
"The entire experience was degrading," said 22-year-old Samar Kaukab, an American citizen of Pakistani origin, said in a press release by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has taken up her case. "I felt as though the security personnel had singled me out because I didn't belong, wasn't trusted and wouldn't be welcomed in my own country."
Now, after a family member of Kaukab's contacted a Chicago-area lawyer who took the case to the ACLU, their Illinois chapter has filed a lawsuit against Major-General David Harris, the Adjutant General for the Illinois National Guard, and Argenbright Security, Inc., as defendants for the actions of their personnel.
"This was first of all a violation of her obvious constitutional right to free religious exercise," Ed Yohnka, the Illinois ACLU's communications director, told IslamOnline. "The simple act of asking her to take off her
hijab in public violated that."
Kaukab's case is based on three constitutional violations; the first, as Yohnka described, was a violation of her First Amendment right to practice her religion free of restraint.
The second, he said, was a violation of her Fourth Amendment right to be protected from being searched without reason.
According to the ACLU's legal complaint, the walk-through detector and the metal detector wand never picked up anything - although the guard passed it over her
hijab several times as a crowd gathered to watch - yet the guards carried out the strip search anyway.
"This constitutes an unreasonable search of her person," Yohnka said.
"Finally, we believe that it was also a violation of her rights under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment," Yohnka said, because she was singled out on the basis of her religion, ethnicity and national origin.
Kaukab was returning home to Columbus, Ohio, and traveling with others from a conference in Chicago. Another conference attendee, a Caucasian woman, who also wore a headscarf, passed through the detector without any complaint, according to the ACLU's complaint.
"Ms. Kaukab was identified and subjected to a humiliating search not because she posed any security threat, but only because her wearing of a
hijab identified her as a Muslim," said Lorie Chaiten, an ACLU lawyer, in the press release.
Yohnka told IslamOnline that the ACLU had worked with many cases of strip searches with the Chicago police department, but "this is the first case after 9/11 that bears any resemblance to this."
However, he said that looking at information from the Council on American-Islamic Relations - which is also publicizing Kaukab's case - and other reports, one can "very clearly get the impression" that there is a widespread problem.
The Illinois ACLU's legal director, Harvey Grossman, said that Kaukab's situation is "symptomatic" of the fact that steps have not been taken to prevent this kind of thing from happening.
"Many of our nation's highest public officer holders have publicly decried any acts of discrimination or violence being directed at Muslims and persons of Middle Eastern descent," Grossman said in the press release.
"This case is symptomatic, however, of the fact that these same public officials have not provided appropriate training and oversight to ensure that no person is singled out for abuse and discrimination based upon their ethnicity and religion."
The ACLU is asking for the defendants to recognize the constitutional violations that occurred, permanent injunctions barring them from committing such acts against Kaukab again and forcing them to draw up a plan for preventive training of personnel, and compensatory damages.
Yohnka told IslamOnline that the suit would seek "reform measures" rather than punitive measures against the guards.
"We would like to see changes in the system to ensure that this is not carried out against any individual in the future," he said.
Additional information from news agencies
|
