Muslim Woman Fights To Keep On Veil For License Photo (Updated)

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[chance33_98]

Muslim Woman Fights To Keep On Veil For License Photo

Posted: 12:34 p.m. EDT May 27, 2003

Updated: 2:51 p.m. EDT May 27, 2003 ORLANDO, Fla. -- Florida's refusal to issue a driver's license to a Muslim woman unless she is photographed without her veil violates her religious rights, an ACLU attorney argued in court Tuesday. The requirement by the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is a burden on Saltaana Freeman, a 35-year-old convert to Islam whose religious beliefs require her to keep her head and face covered out of modesty, said Howard Marks, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

"This is about religious liberty. It's about whether this country is going to have religious diversity,'' said Marks at the beginning of Freeman's nonjury trial. "Allowing the state to chip away at religious liberties is not a path we want to go down.''

"There's no dispute in this case, your honor, that my client came to Florida in February 2001, was issued a Florida driver's license persuant to the rules and regulations in place at that time," Marks said. "The testimony is going to be that the law has not changed."

Marks also pointed out that Florida has issued more than 800,000 temporary driving permits in the last five years without photographs. And that some of the driver's license photos are 18 years old and barely resemble the card holder.

But Assistant Attorney General Jason Vail argued that having an easily identifiable photo on a driver's license was a matter of public safety since the photos are used during traffic stops, in financial transactions and to prevent identity fraud. Vail said there are limits to the religious liberties extended in the Florida Constitution if public safety is at stake.

"It's the primary method of identification in Florida and the nation,'' Vail said of the driver's license. "I don't think there can be any doubt there is a public safety interest.'' Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe must decide whether taking the photo would violate Freeman's religious beliefs and if the state has a compelling interest in not allowing her to obtain a license with her covered face in a photo.

In February 2001, Freeman obtained a Florida driver's license that had a photo of her face covered in a veil, but she received a letter from the state nine months later warning that it would revoke her license unless she returned for a photo with her face uncovered.

She refused and sued for the right to get a driver's license with a photo showing her face uncovered.

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 denied by attorneys for the state.

Florida attorneys plan to call Islamic experts to the stand this week to testify that it is not mandatory or a sin for a Muslim woman to show her face for a state issued photograph, according to Local 6 News

Local 6 News also reported that the state also plans to submit into evidence a Time magazine photo of Elizabeth Smart that shows part of her face veiled. Attorneys would not comment on why they want to use the photo but there is speculation that they will use it as an example that a veiled face could hinder identification for authorities.

The trial is expected to last through the week, Local 6 News reported.

[Puppage]

2 words......

GET OUT!

[george wythe]

She was born in the US and converted as an adult.

Where will she go?

[Texican72]

If she were such a devout Muslim woman, why is she driving???

[grobdriver]

GET OUT!

Now, now, don't be so harsh.
;)

It's a simple answer: "Either we take a picture of your face for identification purposes or you don't get a driver's license."
Her choice.

[frodolives]

Keep us posted on this one. I thought veiled Islamic women weren't even safe to be let out of the house without a male relative, much less allowed to operate a motor vehicle.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Say I'm ugly and take bad photos. Can I think its my right to stick a bag over my head for license photos? In other words, does my right, religious or frivolous, exceed the societal necessity to know who is driving that car or using that license as a form of ID?

Lady, as far as I'm concerned, you can walk or you can ride a camel, but there will be no bag (er, rag) over your face on the license photo.

[Puppage]

I could care less. Is she an American, or muslim first, hmm???

Try having your license photo taken with your hat on...AIN'T gunna happen.

[Puppage]

Ok. I'd settle for that, Grob.

[Robert DeLong]

To a Muslim dominated country where she is not allowed to drive even if she wants to?

[stainlessbanner]

I believe this woman claimed to be a Christian for many years and only recently converted to Islam (within the last 5-6 years).

[Hodar]

I think Driver's Ed made a valid point years ago. Driving is a PRIVILEDGE, not a right. If she doesn't want to provide a positive identification; she won't get a Driver's License.

Furthermore, as a Driver's License is an acceptable form of ID in pretty much all states, having a photograph (minimal) or fingerprint (which would be great as far as I'm concerned) should be the norm. Temporary Driver's Licenses may not have a photo, but then again, they are Temporary (ie. lasting no more than a month).

[Imagine]

Action Plan: 1) assemble fleet of troop transport vessels in port cities; 2) move, via bus and/or train all US dwelling Muslims to said ports; 3) load muslims onto ships, send forthwith to middle east muslim countries; 4) bulldoze all mosques and islamic schools in US; 5) Concurrently, close borders with military; 6) Pop a Bud, gloat over job well accomplished and relax.

[AmishDude]

She was born in the US and converted as an adult.

Where will she go?

How long term are you talking? I'm pretty sure I know the eventual answer. And as far as I'm concerned, she can go there now.

[Ronin]

I suggest Afghanistan.

[Revolting cat!]

We'd be doomed without the ACLU doing all the defending, why, thinking, for us! Doomed, I tell ya!

[enuu]

And if you're a member of the KKK, you are entitled to wear your white sheet for your Driver's License photo.

[joesnuffy]

face and fingerprints or no license and her phone is tapped along with her mosque's and imman's phone

[CA_soon_gone]

One thing's missing in this discussion. If she won't take the covering off to have a picture taken then anyone want to bet she drives with it on too? Religion aside, that's not safe. License revoked, next case.

[dark_lord]

Wasn't this battle fought years ago by some Christian cult sect that thought photos were "graven images" and so didn't want their photos on their drivers licenses at all? Does anyone remember that and what the outcome of the legal cases were?