+- Forums (https://bb.islamsms.com)
+-- Forum: ENGLISH (https://bb.islamsms.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Forum: Current Affairs (https://bb.islamsms.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=17)
+--- Thread: Muslim Woman Loses Veil Case (/showthread.php?tid=9836)
Muslim Woman Loses Veil Case - qirjanran - 06-07-2003
ORLANDO, Fla. (June 6) - A Florida judge ruled Friday that a Muslim woman cannot wear a veil in her driver's license photo, agreeing with state authorities that the practice could help terrorists conceal their identities.
After hearing three days of testimony last week, Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe ruled that Sultaana Freeman's right to free exercise of religion would not be infringed by having to show her face on her license.
Thorpe said the state ``has a compelling interest in protecting the public from criminal activities and security threats,'' and that photo identification ``is essential to promote that interest.''
Freeman, 35, had obtained a license in 2001 that showed her veiled with only her eyes visible through a slit. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, the state demanded that she return to have her photo retaken with her face uncovered. She refused, and the state revoked her license.
Freeman sued the state of Florida, saying it would violate her Islamic beliefs to show her face publicly.
Her case was taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union, which saw the case as a test of religious freedom. Conservative commentators ridiculed the case, saying it would be absurd to allow people to obscure their faces in ID photos.
Assistant Attorney General Jason Vail had argued that Islamic law has exceptions that allow women to expose their faces if it serves a public good, and that arrangements could be made to have Freeman photographed with only women present to allay her concerns about modesty.
Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist praised Friday's decision, saying ``Nothing is more important than making sure that our people are safe.''
The ACLU of Florida said it was disappointed in Thorpe's statement that while Freeman ``most likely poses no threat to national security,'' others may take advantage of a ruling in her favor to threaten lives.
``So we have to infringe on Freeman's religious beliefs because of what someone else might do,'' ACLU legal director Randall C. Marshall said. ``It seems to be a funny kind of interpretation on how the law should apply.''
Marshall noted that a driver's license can be obtained without a photo in 14 states.
Freeman's lawyers argued that instead of a driver's license photo, she could use other documents such as a birth certificate or Social Security card to prove her identity.
Freeman, a convert to Islam previously known as Sandra Kellar, started wearing a veil in 1997. She had a mug shot taken without the veil after her arrest in Illinois in 1998 on a domestic battery charge involving one of twin 3-year-old sisters who were in her foster care.
Child welfare workers told investigators that Freeman and her husband had used their concerns about religious modesty to hinder them from looking for bruises on the girls, according to the police records. The girls were removed from the home.
06/06/03 16:50 EDT
From cnn.com
[b:65db1d71a6]DRIVER'S ID RULES IN MUSLIM NATIONS
Saudi Arabia:Â Women aren't allowed to drive
Iran: Women wear a traditional chador, which does not cover the face.
Egypt: Women do not cover their face in I.D. pictures
United Arab Emirates: Women do not cover their face in I.D. pictures
Oman: Women do not cover their face in I.D. pictures
Kuwait: Women do not cover their face in I.D. pictures
Qatar: Women do not cover their face in I.D. pictures
Bahrain: Women do not cover their face in I.D. pictures
Jordan: Women can drive if their faces are covered but do not cover their face in I.D. pictures[/b:65db1d71a6]
(CNN) -- A Florida judge Friday rejected a woman's request to have her face mostly covered by a veil in the photograph on her state driver's license, the state attorney general's office told CNN.
The 18-page ruling was issued by Circuit Court Judge Janet C. Thorpe in Orlando.
Sultaana Freeman had testified that a state order requesting that she remove her veil -- a niqab, which covers all of her face except her eyes -- infringed on her religious freedom.
"It's totally changed my life and I really feel like a prisoner in my home," said Freeman in testimony before the court last week.
Judge Thorpe ruled that although Freeman held a sincere religious belief that she should wear the niqab in front of all strangers, she did not prove that "the photo requirement itself substantially burdens her right to free exercise of religion," or that the momentarily lifting the veil in a private room for a photo taken by a female officer would be such a burden.
On the other hand, the judge said in the ruling, the state did show that "having access to photo image identification is essential to promote" the state's "compelling interest in protecting the public."
Freeman initially was allowed to wear a veil in her driver's license photograph, as she was allowed to do for a license she got when living in Illinois, but then was asked to retake the photo, showing her face. When she refused, the state revoked her license.
Lawyers for the state argued that the case touched on public safety issues, saying a driver's license showing only a covered face would hinder law enforcement officials.
The Associated Press reported that 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 in a report from the AP. "I don't think there can be any doubt there is a public safety interest."
Freeman's attorneys argued that state officials didn't care that she wore a veil in her Florida driver's license photo until after the September 11 attacks of 2001 -- an allegation the state denies, the AP reported.
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, according to The Associated Press.
Nine months later, the AP reported, 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 claimed 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, according to the AP.
[img][/img][/img]
Muslim Woman Loses Veil Case - Whisper - 06-07-2003
Common Sense wins through.
Muslim Woman Loses Veil Case - Purgetory - 06-07-2003
and your surprised when your posts get deleted?
Muslim Woman Loses Veil Case - Muslimah - 06-07-2003
Exactly Purgetroy
But let her enjoy herself for a while.
Muslim Woman Loses Veil Case - wel_mel - 06-08-2003
what a CHEAP comment Whisper..
but for your info. we are not surprised becouse Allah told us about YOU.
6:5 - And now they reject the truth when it reaches them: but soon shall they learn the reality of what they used to mock at.
6:10- Mocked were (many) apostles before thee; but their scoffers were hemmed in by the thing that they mocked.
30:10 - In the long run Evil in the extreme will be the End of those who do evil; for that they rejected the signs of God, and help them up to ridicule.
46:26 - And We had firmly established them in a (prosperity and) power which We have not given to you (ye Quraish!) And We had endowed them with (faculties of) hearing, seeing, heart and intellect: but of no profit to them were their (faculties of) hearing, sight, and heart and intellect, when they went on rejecting the Signs of God; and they were (completely) encircled by that which they used to mock at!
salam
wel_mel
Muslim Woman Loses Veil Case - Whisper - 06-08-2003
It doesn't make any sense at all, for someone to cover 90% of their head, in order to please Allah.
If she had won that case, a criminal would be able to wear a veil with the drivers license showing only 10% of that person's head, refuse to show the extra 90% due to religious obligations, and then the criminal could wrong society by commiting unlawful acts.
Muslim Woman Loses Veil Case - wel_mel - 06-08-2003
whisper. becouse you dont have Faith in Islam at all you will not be able to understand or to accept this matter now. pls Concentrate on the Basic beliefs of Islam first then look into the others Issues later.
wel_mel.
Muslim Woman Loses Veil Case - Whisper - 06-08-2003
I have faith in God, I understand people have the right to wear what they want, but not at the cost of putting others in danger, as someone siad in the case, driving a car is a privilege, not a constitutional right.