A woman police officer has claimed she was harassed and bullied by fellow members of New York Police Department because of her decision to wear a hijab.
Danielle Alamrani, 38, said in a lawsuit that officers posted images of her at a gun range and even beat her, as part of a torrent of discrimination that also included calling her names as much as “terrorist” and “Taliban”.
“She has been severely impacted. She had to take a leave of absence,” Ms Alamrani’s lawyer, Jesse Rose, told The Independent. “You cannot treat people like this in New York City. You cannot treat people like this in the United States.”
In a lawsuit, Ms Alamrani says the abuse started when she began wearing a hijab in 2008, having converted to Islam the year before. Fellow officers, including an equal employment opportunity liaison official, screamed “Muslim b**ch” as they attacked her.
Things escalated when Ms Alamrani complained to internal affairs about the Facebook posts, the lawsuit says.
Rather than punish the offending officers, the officer who investigated her complaint “retaliated against her by filing a complaint with child services,” the lawsuit adds.
In addition to be called names, Ms Alamrani says was assigned to positions that did not allow her to earn overtime.
“Also, on a daily basis, she would be told that she should not be a police officer, that she should not allowed to wear the hijab, that nobody wanted to work with her, that she was a disgrace to the NYPD and that nobody liked her,” it says.
NBC News said that New York’s legal department, which handles lawsuits against the city, has not yet responded to requests for comment. The police department has referred inquiries to the legal department.
