BARTOW COUNTY, GA — The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says it has filed a federal lawsuit against a north Georgia sheriff’s office and a detention officer over the forced removal of a Muslim woman’s hijab after she was arrested last year.
The complaint says 21-year-old Ivana Elliott was arrested in April 2025 after a traffic stop and several charges against her. Attorneys say deputies forced Elliott to remove her hijab for a booking photo and subjected her to a strip search in front of male officers.
Attorney Keon Grant says Elliott tried to make a temporary head covering from spare clothing while in her cell, but it was removed multiple times.
“The spare clothes that were given to her while she was in the cell, she did try to make a makeshift hijab from the shirt just to protect her as much as possible,” Grant said. “That makeshift hijab was removed several times during her detention.”
The lawsuit claims Elliott suffered bruising and panic attacks and seeks policy changes to prevent officers from requiring Muslim women to remove their headscarves for booking photos. The complaint also challenges the continued retention of her photo without the hijab in public records databases.
In a statement, Co-Counsel Attorney James Slater said:
“We are committed to holding the Bartow County Sheriff and his staff accountable for flagrant violations of our client’s religious freedoms while she was detained at the Bartow County Jail. With this lawsuit, we hope to right the injustices against our client and ensure that this never happens again.”
In a statement, Grant said:
“Our laws are clear: people’s religious rights don’t just disappear at arrest, and people don’t surrender their faith at booking. By filing this lawsuit, CAIR-Georgia aims to ensure that no individual is forced to endure the pain, humiliation, violation of religious beliefs, and degradation that Miss Elliott did at the hands of BCSO. Every day that Miss Elliot’s photo without her hijab is accessible is another day that her religious freedoms and civil rights are violated, and the injury initiated on April 6, 2025, is perpetuated.”
WSB Radio has reached out to the sheriff’s office for comment.