Transgender Muslim Autumn Cordellionè, also known as Jonathan C. Richardson, who is currently in prison serving 55 years for killing a baby has boldly filed a $150K lawsuit for not being allowed to wear hijab.
Well, she’s got her rights and if she can rake in some cash from this lawsuit over her fundamental human rights being abused, then why not?
A transgender inmate serving a 55-year sentence for killing her infant is suing an Indiana prison chaplain for allegedly refusing her right to wear a hijab before rejecting her identity as a transgender woman.
Autumn Cordellionè, also known as Jonathan C. Richardson, is serving her sentence at the all-male state prison Branchville Correctional Facility, where she is confined to only hearing her hijab in her immediate sleeping quarters, according to a civil lawsuit filed in November.
The chaplain allegedly delivered the news in May 2023, even after Cordellionè claimed to have already relented to prison protocol by wearing the Muslim headwear in a less traditional manner to adhere to safety concerns.
“[I] was told that male Muslims could wear their kufis everywhere they went, but I couldn’t wear my hijab a females religious head ware because I was a male residing in a male institution even though I am a transgender woman, except in my bed area,” Cordellionè alleged in the complaint.
The prison cleric had allegedly tried to order Cordellionè against wearing the religious scarf because her official religious beliefs were listed as “Wiccan,” a form of paganism whose followers practice witchcraft and nature worship.
Cordellionè, who was convicted of strangling her 11-month-old stepdaughter to death in 2001, fired back, stating she practices several religions and she is an “Islamic practicing transwoman” who uses the hijab to cover her head and ears for “modesty purposes.”
“I responded that I am an eclectic practitioner who is a member of the Theosophical Society in America,” she wrote in the complaint.
“I practice a diversity of faiths in order to custom tailor my spiritual beliefs to my spiritual needs.”
She also claimed he violated her Eight Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment by subjecting her to “harassment and ridicule” by other Muslim prisoners.
“He should be aware, as Chaplain, the stigma and shame that is attributed to Islamic women when they go uncovered and without a hijab,” she wrote.
“Women are viewed as whores, tempters of men, and adulterators; by Islamic society both in and out of prison. I have been shunned, made a social pariah, and amongst my own religious community … For without the support of the Islamic community, I will struggle and likely fail to achieve salvation for by Mohammed’s teachings a Muslim who knows of the teachings, yet strays away from them will never reach heaven.”
Autumn Cordellionè is seeking $150K in damages and being given the right to wear the hijab while in prison serving her 55-year jail term.
