Lawsuit claims officials wrongly forced Muslim woman to remove hijab at Pittsburgh courthouse

Pittsburgh and Allegheny County violated a Muslim woman’s constitutional rights to religious freedom and protection from unreasonable searches when officials forced her last year to remove her hijab, a religious head covering, when taking an ID photo in a municipal courthouse, a federal lawsuit filed Thursday claimed.

Candace Dyer Bey of Moon went to the Pittsburgh Municipal Courts Building on Oct. 31, 2024, to get fingerprinted as part of her “bail conditions” after receiving a citation by mail, according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

Dyer went to the First Avenue courthouse near Downtown Pittsburgh last October with her daughter.

As court employees were booking Dyer Bey, an “identification technician” told Dyer Bey to remove “her ‘scarf’” for an identification photo, the lawsuit said.

The Allegheny County Jail’s policies at the time required people being booked to remove “their religious headdress for their identification photo,” according to the lawsuit.

Dyer Bey said she was wearing a hijab, and her religious beliefs dictated that she not remove it in public, the lawsuit said. She also explained she could not be photographed without it.

But the technician maintained that court policy required Dyer Bey to remove her hijab for the photo, the lawsuit claims.

The technician, when asked, did not produce a written copy of that policy, according to the federal complaint.

A paper sign nearby indicated individuals needed to remove “head wraps and bandanas,” but Dyer Bey explained she wore the hijab as an element of Islamic faith, the lawsuit said.

Dyer Bey then told an intervening supervisor “that being forced to remove her hijab would be highly offensive to her and would violate her religious convictions,” the lawsuit said.

“For Muslim women who wear a hijab, including Ms. Dyer Bey, being forced to remove one’s hijab is akin to a secular person being forced to strip naked,” according to the lawsuit. “Men outside one’s immediate family seeing a Muslim woman uncovered is deeply offensive and contrary to Islamic religious beliefs.”

That supervisor “was dismissive” and “expressed no sympathy or understanding” for Dyer Bey’s religious beliefs, the lawsuit said. The supervisor also told Dyer Bey she “could either remove the hijab or go to jail.”

Dyer Bey said she removed the hijab for about two minutes. The technician then “searched” the head covering, which the lawsuit claims the technician had no “reasonable basis” to do.

Dyer Bey was photographed, said the lawsuit, which claimed men walking by could have seen her without her hijab.

The lawsuit claimed the defendants created a “permanent public record” of Dyer Bey. It also alleged her picture was released to the public, to men outside her immediate family “and/or Allegheny County Jail/ Pittsburgh Municipal Court internal systems…”

Such a release “is deeply contrary to her religious beliefs,” the lawsuit claims.

Dyer Bey’s attorney, Sara Watkins, said in the lawsuit that her client suffered “psychological pain, humiliation and mental anguish” due to the incident.

Watkins did not return a phone call Friday from TribLive.

Officials from Pittsburgh and Allegheny County did not respond to emails Friday seeking comment.

No criminal charges in Pennsylvania against Dyer Bey were listed in state court records.

She pleaded guilty to non-traffic violations related to school attendance four times from 2006 and 2023, court records show.

The lawsuit said Dyer Bey filed complaints with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which is pending, and the state attorney general.

On May 7, the attorney general announced a change to Allegheny County Jail policies to “ensure respectful treatment of individuals wearing religious head coverings during the jail booking process.”

Under the policy, the county “will permit any arrestee to wear a religious head covering (Hijab, Yarmulke, Turban, etc.) while taking their booking photo if the covering does not obstruct their face and profile.”

Dyer Bey’s lawsuit said the policy change resulted from her complaint.

Dyer Bey is seeking compensatory and punitive damages plus costs and attorney fees, according to the lawsuit. She is requesting a jury trial.