Georgia judge jails Muslim woman over head scarf

"Valentine violated a court policy that prohibits people from wearing any headgear in court, police said."

Whether she violated it or attempted to violate it, is one question.

"Valentine,... told the bailiff that she had been in courtrooms before with the scarf on..."

Sounds like she is no stranger to coutrooms (as an insurance underwriter?), but it doesn't mention where those courtrooms were or what their particular laws/rules were.

Sounds a bit like, "I've parked like this before (in no-parking zones in other towns) and no traffic warden said anything."

Contempt of court - on the way in? The judge should be jailed for stupidity.

Depending on the place, you can not walk into a court house with confederate flags, Nazi symbols, and in the UK a flight attendants and passengers alike, unless members of a clergy were told to remove their crosses.

Those are SYMBOLS. We are talking about CLOTHING here. They don't make priests take off their robes too do they? So long as the clothing is unadorned with symbols, who cares? Sure, clothing can denote your religion. But it can also denote your gender.

Also, cursing at a cop can in many places get you arrested.

Not sure if that applies to a baliff, particularly one working a security checkpoint. It can be really hard to tell who is official and who is just a part-time clown.

This case reminds me of the one lady that wanted to have her drivers license photo taken with a burka covering her face and when refused, she cried discrimination (like since when should a license photo be of a covered face?)

That is a much tougher nut to crack. The point is that we need a way to identify people on a license, and the primary way is a photo of the face. In other words, there is a good reason for that rule and no sound alternative. The Valentine case is totally different.

Depending on the place, you can not walk into a court house with confederate flags, Nazi symbols, and in the UK a flight attendants and passengers alike, unless members of a clergy were told to remove their crosses.

Also, cursing at a cop can in many places get you arrested. I was pulled in calling a fat white cop a XXXXXXXX, and little did I realize his Spanish was better than mine, when I was 16 and then got a beating from my mom!

This case reminds me of the one lady that wanted to have her drivers license photo taken with a burka covering her face and when refused, she cried discrimination (like since when should a license photo be of a covered face?)

Actually, the language is deceptive:

Would you also say garbled and contradictory?

And with a name like Lisa Valentine, I'm betting blind that she's one of those convert types that like to go shrieky PC....

Good point. For some reason this got me wondering how many judges would ask Jackie Onnasis to remove her head scarf.

Expletive, or head-scarf, contempt of court 'aint nothing to mess with.

Heh, I bet she won't pull this one again. And with a name like Lisa Valentine, I'm betting blind that she's one of those convert types that like to go shrieky PC....

Actually, the language is deceptive:

"A judge ordered a Muslim woman arrested Tuesday for contempt of court for refusing to take off her head scarf at a security checkpoint."

That sentence means the lady refused to take off her headscarf and was jailed because of it.

Then the article says:

"When she turned to leave and uttered an expletive, Hall said a bailiff handcuffed her and took her before the judge."

To me that means she was arrested for uttering the expletive.

likeitis "women are not allowed to wear anything that covers their body"?

is it a nudist court????

I feel it necessary to treat everyone fairly. The only way to do that is either clothes are allowed or they are not. I went with not. Debating about whether clothes are allowed on the face and head or not while demanding they be everywhere else but the hands is just completely discriminatory. It is a social norm of a time and a place, and I allow no discrimination in my courtroom except that which was ordained by Mother Nature.

The crime: Contempt of court. The punishment: Jail.

How did we get to contempt of court? The woman was dragged before a judge for cursing to a bailiff OUTSIDE the court! If you don't allow folks with headgear in the court, then you should not drag them in that way! And if you are going to remove the headgear yourself and drag them before the court you better have a better reason than a bailiff getting swore to outside the court.

Seems like a giant catch 22 here. Its also on par with planting evidence.

likeitis "women are not allowed to wear anything that covers their body"?

is it a nudist court????

The punishment does not fit the crime and is unworthy of a country which calls itself democratic.

The crime: Contempt of court. The punishment: Jail.

Not rocket science, dude.

No headgear - I wonder if that would include ear rings, nose rings, false teeth, false eyelashes, wigs, etc.

The punishment does not fit the crime and is unworthy of a country which calls itself democratic.

I hope nobody who has injured their head has a scheduled court appearance. Would not want them removing the bandages only to bleed all over the court.

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....When she turned to leave and uttered an expletive, Hall said a bailiff handcuffed her and took her before the judge.

Looks to me like she was jailed for telling a bailiff to F off. I guess we don't have freedom of speech now in America either.

Anyway, in my court, women are not allowed to wear anything that covers their body. Not only facial expressions, but body language can be very important when trying to determine guilt or innocence. Don't want to miss any of it.

It seems to me that baring the face is as obscene for some Muslim women as baring a breast. Not respecting that fact is WHOLE lot greater than not respecting some antiquated headgear rule that has no basis in anything really.

This is only one case, but the judgment here is so bad I question whether this judge should be judging anything bigger than an elementary school science fair.

But a jail sentence seems harsh, even if she did curse. I'm sure I'd be held in contempt of court for cursing at it, but I wouldn't expect to serve 10 days in jail for it.

She had not entered the court yet when she cursed.

With widely publicized reports of women being used as homicide bombers in Iraq beacuse they can hide the explosive vests under their religous garb,

You can hide explosives under any form of clothing. That is why we have body searches and metal detectors. The religious connection or location of the clothes hardly matters. Baggy clothes would warrant a check in any case.

Er, according to the article, she never entered the court, and her headscarf was never removed. How could she have felt stripped of anything?

They arrested her for what...contempt of the law... plus the expletive?

The more rights you claim, the less freedom you have...

Can't remember who said it, but it is very true.

“I just felt stripped of my civil, my human rights,” lol lol lol lolipop the irony

Wouldn't uttering an expletive be a religious violation too?

" , after she said she was unexpectedly released once CAIR got involved. "

What is sad to see is that once again the Western system caves, once the islamist start screaming. Shameful.

Helter Skelter:

" I'm sure there are dozens of Islamic nations that don't have this headgear rule. "

Not sure about "dozen", but Turkey certainly keeps the skarves and burkas out of public institution. Kemal Atatürk made sure of that. Of course, the islamists try to reverse that.

The problem in the West is that we allow islamist dominance in the name of "religious freedom".

With widely publicized reports of women being used as homicide bombers in Iraq beacuse they can hide the explosive vests under their religous garb, I have to agree with SuperLib. Even predominately Muslim Turkey has a ban on headwear and scarfs in government buildings. It's the law, abide by it.

Valentine violated a court policy that prohibits people from wearing any headgear in court

I'm sure there are dozens of Islamic nations that don't have this headgear rule. I'd encourage Valentine to move to one of them.

No one is allowed to wear headgear in court. If your religion requires you to wear headgear then you'll just have to accept the fact that you won't be allowed in a courtroom. My security trumps your religion. Civil rights is an irrelevant claim since the law applies equally to everyone.

But a jail sentence seems harsh, even if she did curse. I'm sure I'd be held in contempt of court for cursing at it, but I wouldn't expect to serve 10 days in jail for it.