Detained Dutch Muslim Women Not to be Confronted by Male Police

September 20 2010

The Netherlands’ National Ombudsman has ruled that Muslim women who are being detained in cells, and are thus required to remove their headscarves, should not be confronted by male police officers. The decision comes after a Muslim woman was asked to hand over her headscarf to female police officers while male officers watched. The Ombudsman ruled that the police officers did not sufficiently respect her freedom of religion.
Headscarves have to be removed from detainees for ‘safety reasons’, following an incident in 2004 when a detained woman committed suicide using her headscarves.

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