04-15-2006, 09:35 AM
http://www.wpmi.com/news/state/story.aspx?...55-F35C75034969
CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) - Officials for an American Muslim civil rights group say there will be a review into the treatment of an Iraqi-born Muslim woman who was forced to remove her hijab and was strip-searched while being detained after she was barred from entering the country.
Forty-five-year-old Safana Jawad, a Spanish citizen, arrived Tuesday at Tampa International Airport from Spain to visit her 16-year-old son, who lives in Pinellas County.
She told the Saint Petersburg Times, that federal agents told her she couldn't enter the country because she was connected to someone considered suspicious.
Officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations say Jawad was interrogated for more than six hours before being fingerprinted and placed in a maximum security jail cell at the Pinellas County jail.
The group says it has received a letter from the U-S Department of Homeland Security. The letter states that a division of the Homeland Security's Office will work with officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection on the matter.
A telephone message left last night for a Homeland Security spokesman wasn't immediately returned.
Jawad's ex-husband says she flew back to Spain last night without seeing her son.
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Information from: St. Petersburg Times, http://www.sptimes.com