The next day, she appeared before a judge and was told she was being held as a material witness. At the Washington jail, Hashemi said she was forced to remove her hijab, despite objecting because of her religious beliefs. She also decried the federal material witness statute and will participate in a demonstration Friday protesting what opponents see as an arcane and unfair law. One confirmed that she was a material witness and the second confirmed she had been released. Arrests of material witnesses occur infrequently, but the length of Hashemi's detention wasn't unusual for a material witness.

Source: Daily Mail January 25, 2019 00:56 UTC