Muslims Must Bare Head in (Russian)Passports. Not so, in UK Passports!

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request by Muslim women to cover their hair for passport photographs in what rights activists say is a sign of Moscow's growing anti-Islamic stance.

"The Supreme Court rejected the complaint lodged by the Muslim women today," a spokesman told Reuters.

Devout Muslim women are required to wear a headscarf, or hijab, and cover much of their bodies as it is considered sinful for a woman to reveal her hair or skin to anyone other than her husband or immediate relatives.

Human rights groups have long accused Russia, which has 20 million Muslims in its 147 million population, of fostering anti-Islamic feelings as part of Moscow's bid to halt a separatist rebellion in the mainly Muslim province of Chechnya (news - web sites).

The Interior Ministry says wearing a headscarf or any other head gear in a passport picture makes identification difficult.

"Anti-Islamic sentiment might have played a role (in the ruling)," Farid Zagidulla, the plaintiff's lawyer, told Interfax news agency, adding the women planned to appeal to the Supreme Court and could go to the European Court of Human Rights.

The women were appealing a ruling by a court in Russia's mostly Muslim province of Tatarstan that they did not have the right to wear a headscarf in passport photographs.

Moscow has linked Chechen separatism to what it calls international terrorism and has joined Washington in fighting Islamic militancy following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the October theater siege in Moscow.

UK PASSPORTS:

Muslim women can wear headscarf on passport photos http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_39933.html
Saturday 19th August 2000
Muslim women will be allowed to cover their heads with the hijab, or headscarf, on their passport photographs under new Home Office guidelines.
The new guidelines are the result of Fareena Alam's case - she was refused a new passport because she was wearing a hijab on her photograph.
After she protested, she was given a new passport - even though she was wearing a headscarf, The Times reports. The new guidelines state that: "Provided that photographs show the full face... photographs should not be rejected where a religious headcovering is worn."
Humiliation in a flash
The Times, UK 26 August 2000
http://www.times-archive.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/08/26/timwekhli01001.html
Jealousy of another person's success is an unseemly emotion, but Fareena Alam's victory over the Home Office will have many of us seething. She has won the right to wear her Islamic headscarf in her passport photographs, thus gaining a vital degree of protection from the mercilessly bullying eye of the high street photo booth. The new Home Office guidelines, allowing Muslim women to cover their heads with the hijab headscarf on passport snaps, came after Ms Alam's application to renew her passport was refused because the top and sides of her head and face were covered in her picture. Her protest put the mandarins on dodgy ground, so they issued what they call a "clarification" of the rules.

That let her off the hook. But most of us aren't so lucky: each year we make more than 20 million trips into the half-curtained humiliation chamber without even the help of a floppy hat (against the rules), let alone a fetching SAS balaclava to help hide us from the hypercritical gaze of the machine's cold aperture....(edited)

...But, sadly, that's not likely to happen. Maybe I should try getting a sex change and converting to Islam. UK Issues New Guidelines on Hijab Passport Photos

Tehran Times, Sunday August 20, 2000

LONDON The British government has been forced to issue new guidelines to officially allow the acceptance of passport photographs of women wearing the hijab (Muslim head scarf).

                               The clarification follows the case of a Muslim woman having an application to renew her passport rejected at the British High Commission in Singapore because she was wearing hijab. The refusal led Fareena Alam to campaign for her right under Britain's 1976 racial equality act, which allows Muslim women to be exempt from removing their head scarf as it would be judged as indirect racial discrimination.

                               She also took the issue up with the UK passport agency in London, which helped to resolve the dispute after confirming that she could submit a photo wearing a hijab as long as the entire face was seen.

According to this month's Muslim News, to be published next Friday, the home office has since sent instructions to all British embassies, saying "photographs should not be rejected where a religious head covering is worn" provided the full face is shown.

                               After investigating the matter, a Home Office spokesman suggested that the High Commission in Singapore may have followed the previous guidelines that indicate photographs have to be "full face without a hat." (IRNA)

I think there was a recent ruling in FloriDUH that allows Muslim women to wear a head scarf when having their driving ID photograped. Of course, even this was totally unacceptable to CAIR, and other American Muslim groups who are crying foul and demanding that Muslim women who desire it should be able to cover up even more!

I suggest that the nekkid leftists launch a hillside nude protest regarding this matter immediately. ;)

Peculiarities of clothing, diet, physical activities, and the like are only superficial superstitions, and they should not be considered "religious".

I agree. The scarf bit is a preference from looking at old photos etc. and different Muslim countries. It was probably originally the same concept as what we Catholics were intstructed to do. When we went to church, women had to wear something on the head, usually a scarf or hat but some of us just grabbed a string of flowers and pinned them to our head. I don't think anyone does it anymore in the Catholic Church. So I think that as far as a Religious thing, it is nothing more than custom. Don't forget, their rules were also made by humanoids and aren't written in stone.

"Today's Court ruling is an egregious violation of basic human rights aimed at humiliating Muslim women. It is a slap in the face...and it is a war against Islam in general," said Geidar Zhamal of Russia's prominent Human Rights Institute.

May I say that a bunch Muslim women wearing hijaba or whatever, caused the death of 200 people in a Moscow theater. Of course any regulation that makes identification of terorists easy is going to be condemned as "humiliation". Of course no one mentions that in the Quran there are explicit directions to lie and decieve unbelievers. Go Russia. UK will lern when it strucks them And what on earth does my hair and ears have to do with spirituality? What?

Actually to this day Orthodox Christian (Russian majority) women wear head cover in - Church only. Quite strict dreesing code for men too. It is not a mandatory but almost everyone does it. If you don't do it, nobody will even tell you anything. I myself decided that the traditional way is better way is better. There is the key - it comes from within. To oppose a reasonable regulation on religious grounds is treacherous.

"And what on earth does my hair or ears have to do with spirituality?"----
I'm amazed you have to ask. Haven't you heard of Follicular Faith or Auditory Awe?

Mohammed stated that the ONLY anatomy of Muslim women that Allah allows to be seen by men and non-Muslim women, including close relatives is the face, the hands from the wrist down and the feet just below the ankles. Cruel bastard!

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