Northern Virginia business faces civil rights lawsuit
Northern Virginia business owner faces civil rights lawsuit
A Northern Virginia business owner is facing a civil rights lawsuit by a customer who claims she was refused service because she is Israeli-American.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Northern Virginia eyebrow tattoo artist is being sued for alleged harassment by a customer who claims her religion and nationality are at the center of the legal action.
What we know:
The civil rights lawsuit was filed against an Old Town beauty salon by a woman who claims she was denied service because she's Israeli-American. She also claims she was threatened and harassed after the owner of the business posted a video of her visit on TikTok.
The video documents a visit that customer Jessica Walton made to Fatana Karimi's business on Aug. 13. The video started after Karimi said she told Walton to leave her salon without getting her deposit refunded.
Karimi said this was after Walton would not stop talking about Middle East politics, then mentioned she was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Israel.
In the video, Karimi makes it very clear to her customers with signage in her salon, that she is pro-Palestinian.
"This is my business," Karimi said in the video.
"That’s totally fine, but you should give me my deposit back and if you don't, I'm going to have to take legal action," Walton is heard saying.
Attorney speaks out
What they're saying:
Omer Wiczyk, the attorney representing Walton in her civil rights complaint, said, "Within seconds of leaving the salon, she was in tears having been a victim of this and was extraordinarily upset for days. When the matter went viral, she began receiving horrible threats of rape and death and other things that are too horrible to speak."
"I don't hide the fact that I don't support Israel and I don't like Israel. I think everybody knows that. But then she brings up the fact that she's Israeli-American and I ignore that because I really don't care where you're from. It really doesn't matter to me. If I wanted to get into politics, I would've run for office. I do eyebrows," Karimi said in the video.
"To be clear, this case is not about punishing criticism of Israel. The right to criticize Israel, though, is not a right to discriminate against Israelis. And that's an important point," Wiczyk said.
What's next:
The complaint asks Virginia's Office of Civil Rights to investigate whether what occurred was unlawful discrimination.
Karimi Permanent Makeup was closed when FOX 5 DC visited on Wednesday. FOX 5 was unsuccessful in attempts to reach business owner Karimi.
The Source: Information in this article is from court documents and original FOX 5 DC reporting.