A woman filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Thursday against the city of Chicago and six of its police officers after she said that the officers profiled her, based on her religious garb and assaulted her outside a CTA train station last year.

On July Fourth, Itemid Al-Matar, who had been observing Ramadan, was trying to catch the train to  home so she could break fast at sunset. As she was walking up the stairs to the CTA "L" stop at State and Lake streets, police officers grabbed her, unprovoked, and threw her down on the landing.

According to court records, Al-Matar, 32 years old, moved to Chicago from Saudi Arabia two years ago to study English.

A CTA surveillance video showed that Al-Matar had been climbing the stairs alone towards the platform when a group of five officers approached her from behind. One of the officers grabbed her by the shoulder and brings her to the ground, where the police huddle around her and appear to search her.

At a news conference Thursday, Al-Matar's attorney, Gregory Kulis, claimed that police ripped off her religious headwear, a hijab and niqab. He said that they exposed her midriff while she was handcuffed on the ground.

Al-Matar was arrested and charged with reckless conduct and several counts of obstructing justice. In June, a Cook County judge dismissed the first charge and found Al-Matar not guilty of the other counts.

By Prakriti Neogi