The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a civil rights complaint Wednesday on behalf of the Israeli American woman asked to leave an Alexandria salon after a dispute over Israel.
The complaint alleges that the permanent makeup studio Karimi Brows denied services to an Israeli American Jewish woman because of her Jewish and Israeli identity, then filmed and posted a video of the woman on business-affiliated social media accounts, which led to harassment and threats against the woman and her family.
On Aug. 13, Jessica Walton was getting eyebrow work done at Karimi Brows, having paid the required $200 deposit, according to her complaint. The complaint continues that after she mentioned she is Jewish and has dual citizenship in the United States and Israel, Fatana Karimi, the salon owner, stopped working and “ordered her to leave,” refusing to refund the deposit. Walton’s bank has since returned the deposit.
The Virginia Human Rights Act prohibits places of public accommodation from denying or conditioning services because of protected characteristics, including national origin and religion.
Karimi Brows offers cosmetic eyebrow and related beauty services to the general public for a fee.
“The case is about a basic civil rights principle: a business open to the public cannot reclassify a customer’s Israeli identity as objectionable politics and require her to condemn her foreign government before receiving service,” Omer Wiczyk, the lead attorney on this case, told Washington Jewish Week.
Walton’s and Karimi’s social media accounts of the incident provide opposing claims of what occurred during the appointment — whether Karimi denied service over “politics” or Walton’s Israeli identity.
Walton said Karimi told her, “I can’t provide service to an Israeli.” Karimi claimed that her request for Walton to leave followed “heavy political debates, denying ongoing human rights crises and making targeted comments about [Karimi’s Afghan] culture and heritage,” according to a TikTok post by Karimi.
“For Karimi, saying you’re an Israeli might be political, but it isn’t as a matter of law,” Wiczyk said. “And that’s what happened here. Our client told her that she was an Israeli American, and [Karimi] stopped the appointment. It wasn’t a discussion about Netanyahu. There was no discussion of any of that.”
Wiczyk emphasized he believes Walton wasn’t denied service because of her political views.
“Our client was denied service because she’s an Israeli American,” the attorney said. “You cannot create a political ideological litmus test for certain classifications of people, so you cannot ask a Jew or an Israeli, ‘I’m not going to serve you unless you tell me your opinion on the Gaza war.’ Likewise, you couldn’t do that with any other group of people.”
In social media videos and posts, Karimi claimed that her clients’ ethnicity doesn’t matter to her. But in a video, Karimi said she would have “let it slide by” that Walton is Israeli except for the fact that Walton “defended” Israel during the appointment and maintained that Israelis have lived there for thousands of years.
“That’s absolutely a violation of civil rights,” Wiczyk said. “You cannot condition service based upon someone’s ethnicity, national origin, religion, race, and then ask a political question to make it seem like it’s politics.”
Karimi’s videos and social media commentary over the next few days led to harassment and threats against Walton, including death and rape threats, according to the complaint. An online user manipulated and shared a photo of Walton’s young children, forcing her to contact law enforcement and take additional security precautions, it adds.
Walton has suffered humiliation, fear, loss of sleep and appetite, disruption to work and family life, and concern for personal safety and professional reputation, according to the complaint.
On Aug. 20, the Brandeis Center sent Karimi a written demand to take down the relevant social media content and confirm her compliance within 48 hours. Through counsel, Karimi rejected the Brandeis Center’s demands Aug. 28.
Wiczyk hopes to first and foremost clarify the record of what occurred Aug. 13.
“Ms. Karimi went on social media and had many narratives that are not wholly accurate, and our client is now the subject of horrible threats — all online and [via] email — attacking her and her family,” Wiczyk said.
He clarified that the Brandeis Center isn’t seeking to punish criticism of Israel.
“Karimi and everyone else has every right to express their political views and to condemn Israel’s actions if they want,” Wiczyk said. “They just can’t deny or condition public-facing services based on our customers’ identity.
“We hope the Office of Civil Rights will find that there was, in fact, reasonable cause to believe that a violation occurred, that they will conduct their investigation and make it clear not only to Ms. Karimi, but to everyone else working in Virginia and all over the country, that denying service because of an ethnic or national origin or religion, or placing discriminatory conditions on people receiving service are unlawful,” he added.
Wiczyk, who is currently working on a similar case in Oakland, California, encouraged anyone who believes they are the victim of identity-based discrimination to speak up and request counsel.
“These things are unlawful,” he said. “It’s un-American and should be stopped.”
zbell@midatlanticmedia.com
