This just doesn't work.

[novapsyche]

Muslim Woman Sues to Wear Veil for License

A Muslim woman suing to keep her veil on for her driver's license photo took the stand Tuesday, saying Florida's insistence on photographing her face violates her religious rights.

"I don't unveil ... because it would be disobeying my Lord," said Sultaana Freeman, 35.

Both sides planned to call experts in Islamic law at the nonjury trial, which was to continue Wednesday. A copy of the Quran was entered into evidence.

Freeman, a convert to Islam previously known as Sandra Kellar, wore her veil for the photo on the Florida driver's license she obtained after moving to the state in 2001.

Nine months later, she received a letter from the state warning that it would revoke her license unless she returned for a photo with her face uncovered.

Freeman claims her religious beliefs require her to keep her head and face covered out of modesty and that her faith prohibits her face from being photographed.

Her attorneys argued that state officials didn't care that she wore a veil in the photo until after the Sept. 11 attacks, an allegation the state denies.

"This is about religious liberty. It's about whether this country is going to have religious diversity," said Howard Marks, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

Assistant Attorney General Jason Vail argued that having an easily identifiable photo on a driver's license is a matter of public safety.

"It's the primary method of identification in Florida and the nation," Vail said. "I don't think there can be any doubt there is a public safety interest."

***

I'm a fan of the ACLU, but this case is ridiculous. A license is a form of picture ID. How is anyone supposed to be identified behind a veil? What if I went to the Secretary of State with a paper bag over my head with eyes cut out? Sure I wouldn't have any religious authority to back me up, but the net result would be the same. A covered face nixes the whole point of the verification of identity.

I mean, really.

Comments

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

It might be a religious diversity issue if a driver's license was something she was required to have in order to live here, but it's not. She's asking for permission to drive in the state of Florida and the state is saying "all drivers have photo IDs that allow officers to quickly determine whether or not the person on the license is the person driving" - it's a two-way agreement. She doesn't have to enter into it, but if she wants to, she has to have a photo ID.

It does seem like there ought to be a way around it, like tatooing something on her hand and putting a picture of that on the license, but I'm not sure but that might violate her religious beliefs anyway. Besides, a tatoo could be duplicated, whereas (so far) a face really can't. I'd also be interested in a safety study on how safe it is to drive while wearing a veil.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I completely agree: it's not required that she drive. If she wishes to drive, then she needs to let her face be photographed.

I was also considering the need to have photo ID. She couldn't even get a regular state ID, using her line of reasoning. That would leave her with few options of obtaining photo ID, which is more or less required in this society.

Someone commenting on this news item on the noon-hour news said that it is permissible for Muslim women to remove their veils for official documents. If this is true, then the woman really doesn't have much of an argument to stand on.

[sourcebook.livejournal.com]

It seems to be an absolute requirement that she doesn't get her face photgraphed.
It's also an abolute requirement that a legal photo id carry a recognisable representation of the bearer.
It doesn't seem to be an absolute requirement that she should drive in the state of Florida, so that's what should give.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

As I was saying to netmouse, someone mentioned on today's news that it is permissible for Muslim women to remove their veils for official documents.

But even if that weren't (or isn't) the case, I agree with your assessment. Driving isn't a right.

[gondelf.livejournal.com]

It would seem that she, (the woman) is being awkward simply to be difficult. It is obvious that to have an ID, one must be identified on it - It would be nice to have the back of my head on my license, so there was no record of what I looked like, but as said by others, that would not work. The case is yet another in the long list of persons trying to buck the system in the United States. This country has been so open in its acceptance of diversity that it has shot itself in the foot.

G

no face, no license. it's that easy...cut and dried

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

wish all debates could be that easy when separation of church and state has always had interesting reperocussions, especially when priests are allowed to molest without consequence

strange world
and people tell me I'M the strange one

[harliquinmayhem.livejournal.com]

::sigh:: Do what you will, so long as it doesn't change what another would have done as their will. You're special...just like everyone else...so no one really gets special treatment...especially if it would effect how others live. I mean, if you want a drivers licence, there are certain things that you just have to do to get one...and how do people not understand this? There are plenty of people that can just wear sheets on their heads if they want to, but in a legal determining, they would take the sheet off. Simple? I THOUGHT so...

[padpedpladuk.livejournal.com]

There was that Afghan chick on the cover of National Geographic a few years ago. When they found her again last year she only needed her husband's permission to be photographed without her veil for a widely distributed magazine, not just a single-copy driver's license.