Army Investigation Debunks Anti-Muslim Claim After Headscarf Controversy

As I thought this would turn out to be, more fake news:

When the story broke in March, an incident at Fort Carson was portrayed as a clear-cut example of anti-Muslim bigotry.

But a lengthy Army investigation released to The Gazette shows something far more complex: Army regulations clashing with Islamic concepts of modesty and a recent convert to the faith whose religious life conflicted with her military duties.

The Army debunked the discrimination claim, but investigators admit leaders need to learn more about the interaction with a faith that’s unfamiliar to most Americans, and a source of contention for many soldiers.

The Army’s investigation was triggered by a March 6 incident that occurred as soldiers from the post’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team attended a suicide prevention class. Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos, a cook, was in the class along with one of her bosses, Command Sgt. Maj. Kerstin Montoya.

The sergeant major told investigators she spotted something amiss with Valdovinos’ hair under a hijab, a head covering commonly worn by Muslim women.

“Even though Sgt. Valdovinos was wearing a religious head cover, I could see that the bulk of her hair did not meet regulatory standards,” Montoya wrote, citing an Army rule that requires women to wear long hair in a bun.

Montoya talked to a chaplain and her boss, a female captain, before taking a step that wound up going viral worldwide: She took Valdovinos and the captain outside for a closeup inspection of the sergeant’s hair.

Valdovinos removed her hijab as ordered, but then complained to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and its founder Mikey Weinstein, who launched a media offensive, with the Muslim sergeant as the star of the show. Newspapers as far away as Great Britain picked up the tale, along with television networks and websites by the dozen.

“I felt naked without it,” Valdovinos told the Colorado Springs Independent. “It’s like asking you to take off your blouse. It felt like I was getting raped, in a sense.”When the story broke in March, an incident at Fort Carson was portrayed as a clear-cut example of anti-Muslim bigotry.

But a lengthy Army investigation released to The Gazette shows something far more complex: Army regulations clashing with Islamic concepts of modesty and a recent convert to the faith whose religious life conflicted with her military duties.

The Army debunked the discrimination claim, but investigators admit leaders need to learn more about the interaction with a faith that’s unfamiliar to most Americans, and a source of contention for many soldiers.

The Army’s investigation was triggered by a March 6 incident that occurred as soldiers from the post’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team attended a suicide prevention class. Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos, a cook, was in the class along with one of her bosses, Command Sgt. Maj. Kerstin Montoya.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but she brought up this hijab-gate controversy after she was facing punishment for an inappropriate relationship which she was eventually found guilty of and demoted for.