Woman sues Associated Press for selling her photo in a hijab as a stock photo
A Queens, New York, woman has sued the Associated Press and AP photographer Mark Lennihan for taking and selling a photo of her, the Washington Post’s Volokh Conspiracy reported Monday.
Fifi Youssef wears a hijab, the head covering for women from parts of the Muslim world. Lennihan took her photo last month as she sat in a Starbucks, looking at her phone. The photo was then offered for sale through the AP’s website.
Youssef’s lawsuit (PDF), filed Jan. 20 in New York state court, says she became aware of the photo when it was used to illustrate a controversial Washington Post op-ed entitled “As Muslim women, we actually ask you not to wear the hijab in the name of interfaith solidarity.” The article encourages women to “stand with us instead with moral courage against the ideology of Islamism that demands we cover our hair.” Comments included one that criticized Islam as “a religion that does not allow women to hold a job, drive a car, vote, walk out in public unescorted, get a decent education, etc.”
“Clearly, the article attacks plaintiff’s fundamental beliefs, and by defendants’ actions, her image was thrust into the piece,” Youssef’s attorneys from Daniel Szalkiewicz & Associates wrote.
Furthermore, the lawsuit claims, the picture of Youssef was not taken because she herself was doing anything newsworthy. Rather, it says, it was taken for profit and without her knowledge or consent. AP customers searching their photo database can find Youssef’s photo tagged with the keywords “hijab, Muslim, Islam.” Advertisers as well as publications can pay to use it, she alleges.
“Plaintiff has been dismayed and deeply emotionally upset by defendants’ use of her photograph for advertisement and trade purposes, classifying her as ‘hijab, Muslim, Islam,’” the lawsuit says.
This violates New York’s right of publicity statute, the lawsuit says. UCLA Law professor Eugene Volokh, blogging at the Volokh Conspiracy, says the law allows a person to sue if her “name, portrait, picture or voice is used within this state for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without … written consent first obtained.”
But, he says, New York courts have ruled that use of photographs to illustrate newspaper articles is not covered by the statute. Thus, he thinks New York courts will dismiss the case.
Volokh notes that he himself took down the photo from a prior blog post after Youssef “politely asked me not to use it.”
