When Rafath Waheed was arrested by the DuPage County sheriff’s office last month, the department released a mug shot of the Muslim woman without her religious headscarf.
It’s unlikely the photo was given much thought by those unfamiliar with Islam beyond the photo’s connection to Waheed being charged with submitting forged petitions to run for a seat on the College of DuPage Board of Trustees. A person of the Muslim faith, however, would have seen it quite differently and found the picture deeply disrespectful and insulting, religious experts say.
The situation raised what is becoming an issue for police agencies around the country: the need to be respectful of religious customs with which they may not be familiar while still doing their job in terms of documenting an arrest.
During Waheed’s March 15 arrest at the DuPage County Jail, the Lisle woman was photographed with and without her religious head covering. Only the mug shot without the scarf initially was released to the public.
Sgt. Bob Harris, spokesman for the DuPage County sheriff’s office, said the standard procedure at the jail is to have an arrestee remove any head covering so it can be checked for weapons or contraband. The person also must submit to a booking photograph without it, he said.
In the case of Waheed, two additional photographs were taken — one in which she is wearing her head covering and the other in which she is seen with both the scarf and her glasses.
Harris said he’s never before come across a situation in which there were multiple photos taken. It was only after questions arose a few days later that Harris said he became aware the other photos existed.
In the future, Harris said, he plans to release all booking photos upon request and let social and news media outlets determine which mug shot to use.
Waheed, who is out on $10,000 bail pending an April 12 court date and denies any wrongdoing related to the charges, declined to comment on the photos, as did her attorney, Stacey McCullough.
For Muslim women, being seen without a headscarf, or hijab, is “very offensive for them” and can be considered a sin, said Ali Yurtsever, who serves as the Muslim faith adviser at Benedictine University in Lisle, a school where a quarter of the students are Muslim.
Traditionally, the hijab worn by Muslim women is a means of covering their heads when they are in the presence of adult males outside their families, Yurtsever said. Any time a Muslim woman leaves her home, the scarf is worn.
Yurtsever, of Aurora, said the wearing of the hijab is a religious obligation — similar to praying five times a day — that is deeply rooted in the Quran and has been debated through the ages.
Most scholars agree that once a young woman reaches puberty, her hair and neck should be covered as sign of modesty, he said.
“For women in Islam, modesty is very important,” he said.
Sabahat Raees, a sophomore at Benedictine University, said that if she were asked to remove her hijab in public, she would feel “exposed.”
The Glendale Heights woman started wearing the hijab as a freshman in high school merely for religious reasons but since then has found dressing modestly means so much more, she said.
“It’s empowering to know that my hair, my beauty, showing of my body doesn’t have to equate to be something great. I can use my mind or my words,” she said.
Raees said she respects that police need to photograph arrestees without the hijab, but only as long as the photos are used for internal police procedures. “If they ever got into the public, it would be horrible, dehumanizing,” Raees said.
“Hijab for me symbolizes modesty, and it is something I hold near and dear to my heart,” she said.
The line between what is legal and what is religiously appropriate can get confusing.
As an agency, the Illinois State Police have no specific policy addressing the booking photos and leave it up to local county and municipal departments to apply their rules.
Master Sgt. Mike Link, public information officer for the Illinois State Police, said via email that photographs of arrested persons are generally taken during the booking process at the county jail or local municipal holding facility. Whatever photos those agencies take are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, he said.
Naperville police Chief Robert Marshall, when questioned by the Naperville Sun about his department’s policy on the issue, said he would look to other communities for help in drafting one.
“When it comes to religious symbols, we don’t have any policy,” Marshall said.
Marshall said he planned to broach the subject with Benchmark City Survey affiliates from across the country that are similar in size and demographics to see what policies they might have in place and use that as a starting point. The cities, from Boca Raton, Fla., to Bellevue, Wash., frequently share procedural information, he said.
The chief said Naperville has never experienced an incident in which a person who was arrested required religious accommodations. But past experience doesn’t necessarily reflect what might happen in the future.
“We’d like to be in the front of it,” Marshall said. At the minimum, he said, “we need to give officers some direction.”
Part of the challenge is that religious headwear — for both men and women of different faiths — is allowed on official identification, such as driver’s licenses and U.S. passports.
Head coverings for religious purposes are allowed for an Illinois driver’s license photo as long as they do not cover any area of the open face and if the driver signs a statement declaring that “he or she wears the head dressing at all times when in public,” according to state rules.
It’s similar for passport photos. A person must submit a signed statement that verifies “that the hat or head covering in the photo is part of recognized, traditional religious attire that is customarily or required to be worn continuously in public,” according to the U.S. State Department.
DuPage County is not alone in its confusion. A similar incident occurred in Maine in July 2016 when Portland police arrested 18 protesters who were brought the Cumberland County Jail for processing.
Two months later, Sheriff Kevin Joyce apologized to the Muslim community for being “ill prepared for the types of arrests that came in” and releasing photos of two Muslim women without their hijabs.
An investigation by the sheriff’s office found the Cumberland County Jail followed its policy with respect to taking photos of the female arrestees with their hijabs off but did not follow its policy on releasing the photos of the two female Muslim suspects.