U.S.-Muslim Policewoman Faces Dismissal Over Hijab

If she shows up with it again, Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson said, she will be fired, claiming that it is unsafe for a police officer to wear the garb.

"She will be terminated if she comes to work and decides that she’s not going to adhere to our policy," Johnson said.

But Webb was defiant and insisted that wearing hijab is her religious belief.

"It is commanded by Allah that all Muslim women must cover their hair," she said in an interview in her East Germantown home a day earlier.

"As a Muslim woman, I must follow this command," she added.

Webb, recently divorced and the mother of six children, said she became a Sunni Muslim about two years after joining the force in 1995.

She said she soon began wearing the headgear off duty. In 1998 she asked permission to wear it to work, but was immediately turned down by superiors, who said that it was a danger. She said she was told that "someone could pull me with it or choke me."

"So, I pretty much left it alone. I was happy learning my religion," she said, taking notice of other female officers wearing wigs and hairpieces.

Only For Beards

Observers see threats to Webb as sexist, as Johnson himself changed the department’s decades-old rule to allow officers to wear full beards for religious or medical reasons only few days ago.

Under the religious waiver, an officer may wear a beard if he practices a religion that requires him to have it.

Saying that changing the beard policy was based on the decision of the Third Circuit Court and the federal court, Johnson contended that women’s hijab makes a different case.

"As far as females wearing headgear, there [are] no legal challenges anywhere in the United States and no law anywhere that we researched that would say that this is permissible," he said.

But Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religious beliefs or practices.

The act requires employers to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of an employee, unless to do so would create an undue hardship, said the Inquirer.

Safety Claims Refuted

The Council on American-Islam Relations in Washington, an advocacy and civil-rights group that has taken up Webb’s cause, said Philadelphia police initially opposed the scarf as a safety issue.

"Other departments in other parts of the country have had similar situations, in Chicago in the sheriff’s department and in a fire department in Maryland," Rabiah Ahmed, a council spokeswoman, was quoted by the Inquirer as saying.

"They were able to come to a compromise and accommodate scarves."

Ahmed said police safety concerns that the hijab could be grabbed and harm a female officer are easily remedied by using hook-and-loop closures that separate when pulled open.

Webb’s hijab, which does not mask her face, is fastened with the pull-apart closures.

"We believe it’s her sincere belief that this [the wearing of the hijab] is religiously mandated," Ahmed said. "Like anybody else, she should be able to practice her religion. And if it’s not an undue hardship, she should be allowed to practice her religion."

Ahmed herself wears a hijab "for the purpose of identity, the purpose of protection, and the purpose of modesty.

"It protects me from unwanted gazers, it’s an act of modesty, and an act of worship."

She said some Muslim scholars agree that wearing the hijab is mandated by God.

"It is open for interpretation," she said. "Some scholars say it’s not [mandated], but most say it is, according to my understanding.

"But that’s beside the point," Ahmed said. "As long as it’s her religious belief, it’s for her to decide."

On August 6th, CAIR sent a letter to Philadelphia Police Commissioner
Sylvester Johnson outlining the department’s legal duty to accommodate the religious practices of employees.

That letter sought an investigation of the case, requested that dress code policies
be amended to allow religious exemptions and recommended sensitivity training for department staff.

"Given the growing religious and ethnic diversity of our society, creative solutions must be found to balance the needs of employers with the religious rights of employees as guaranteed by the Constitution and federal law," said Joshua Salaam, CAIR civil rights manager.

Salaam applauded the Philadelphia Police Department’s recent decision to change its no-beard policy by allowing officers to grow facial hair for religious or medical reasons. He called on the department to make a
similar accommodation for the female officer.

In a similar case last year, Illinois’ Cook County Sheriff’s Department allowed a Muslim and a Jewish deputy to wear religiously-mandated head coverings while on the job.

That decision came after concerned Muslims from across America contacted the sheriff’s office to request religious accommodation for the two officers. In 2001, CAIR helped a Muslim woman firefighter in Maryland win the right to wear an Islamic scarf while at the same time addressing her employer’s concerns about safety.