Muslims upset about removing scarves to get Alabama licenses

TuscaloosaNews.com ^ | January 15, 2004

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Some Muslim women in Alabama are upset because state driver's license officials are requiring them to remove their head scarves if they want to get a license.

"I wear this for religious reasons. I'm not taking it off," La Tonya Floyd of Mobile said Thursday.

Floyd said she left a driver's license office in Mobile on Dec. 19 after being told state rules require her hair to be visible in her license photograph. She appealed to the state Department of Public Safety in Montgomery for an exemption for religious reasons, but was turned down, she said.

She is one of more than 10 Muslim women from Mobile and Birmingham who complained to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The Washington-based group wrote to Alabama Public Safety Director Mike Coppage asking the state to end its requirement for women to remove their head scarf, or hijab.

Department spokeswoman Dorris Teague said department officials were reviewing the matter. DPS officials later released a statement Thursday saying that it is necessary for a driver's license photo to clearly identify the individual. The statement said that DPS policy requires that photographs on Drivers Licenses "appear in such a way that would allow for the positive identification of individuals pictured on the license."

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said most states - including Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee - have policies that allow people to wear head coverings for religious and medical reasons, such as cancer patients who have lost their hair. The rules provide that the coverings can't obscure the person's face.

Last June, a Muslim woman in Florida lost a suit in which she sought to have her driver's license photo made with a veil. Florida had originally allowed her to get a driver's license wearing a veil, but the state changed its policy to require a full-face photo after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The scarves at issue in Alabama cover the hair, ears and neck, but not the face, Hooper said.

Boyd Campbell, a Montgomery attorney who specializes in immigration law, said banning head scarves makes no sense when Alabama allows men to wear hair pieces and women to wear wigs in their driver's license photos.

"What's the difference?" Campbell asked.

Floyd maintains that a photo in a scarf would be better because it would represent the way she should would look if stopped by a law enforcement officer or going through a security checkpoint.

She said Alabama's policy doesn't appear to be enforced consistently because she has talked to Muslim women who got driver's licenses in Alabama while wearing scarves. In one case, a Muslim woman stepped into a private room and allowed a female employee to verify that the hair color she put on her license application was correct, Floyd said.

Floyd, who moved to Mobile from Dallas last year, said she had no problem getting a license in Texas while wearing a scarf.

[Howie66]

Well....no problem here, Abdul. Just take your scarves and go to Saudi. We really don't need your type here anyway.

[BenLurkin]

So don't drive.

Take a hint from the Amish: If you want to be unreasonably peculiar, then opt out completely.

[SouthernFreebird]

So don't drive.

Forget that...down here we'd prefer it if they actually left.

[festus]

When I was growing up it was easy to tell the bandito's. They always wore masks to cover their identity.......

Guess thats all behind us now eh ?

[Lucky Dog]

A driver's license is a privilege not a right. As long the requirements for obtaining a license have some basis in logic and reality, there is no reason they should be changed. The only question to be answered is whether there is a logical reason to see a person's hair for the purpose of identification on a driver's license. It certainly seems logical... It will be interesting to see if a court also sees this requirement as logical. Fortunately, it isn't the Ninth Circuit that will be making the decision.

[rllngrk33]

Driving is a priviledge. If she wants a license to drive she must comply with the rules. Otherwise learn to walk, take the bus, a cab, or get someone else to drive her.

And if she don't like that then she can move elsewhere!

[The_Media_never_lie]

"I wear this for religious reasons. I'm not taking it off," La Tonya Floyd of Mobile said Thursday.

Sounds like a home grown fifth-columnist to me.

[Happy2BMe]

"Some Muslim women in Alabama are upset because state driver's license officials are requiring them to remove their head scarves if they want to get a license."

Onward Muslim Soldier Ping!

What they're saying about "Onward Muslim Soldiers" - An expose of militant Islam.

The FREEPERS Guide To Islamic Terror Websites - CYBERTERRORISM (And It's Sponsors)

It’s O.K. Akhmed – Christians Are Infidels, and Infidels Are Just Dogs

---

We Must NEVER Forget!

[dts32041]

Yeah maybe Iran or Saudi Arabia?

[Happy2BMe]

BETTER PUT A HEADSCARF ON YOUR WOMAN INFIDEL - PING!

[GulliverSwift]

Nowhere in the Koran does it say that women should wear those things. I've also noticed that many young Muslim women will wear the scarf while at the same time wearing very form-fitting clothing. I guess hypocrisy isn't a sin in Islam.

[CaptRon]

Dear La Tonya,

Driving is a privilege, not a right. If you want to drive you have to obey the rules.

Hope this helps.

CaptRon

[CaptRon]

I've also noticed that many young Muslim women will wear the scarf while at the same time wearing very form-fitting clothing. I guess hypocrisy isn't a sin in Islam.

Speaking for myself, that would depend on the form.

[Guillermo]

Muslims will not stop until the US is part of a greater Islamic Caliphate.

[brazucausa]

"I wear this for religious reasons. I'm not taking it off," La Tonya Floyd of Mobile said Thursday.

Well good don't get driving license. And if you get pull off by police officer on duty don't complain ok. After all this is not Saudi Arabia

[itsahoot]

I've also noticed that many young Muslim women will wear the scarf while at the same time wearing very form-fitting clothing.

What! You never watched "I Dream of Jeannie" <(°¿°)>

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Muslim women in Alabama are upset because state officials are requiring them to remove their head scarves if they want to get a license...(they)appealed to the state for an exemption for religious reasons, but were turned down...

I was quite upset on September 11, 2001 when seeing the results of similiar "religious reasons".

I suppose that would explain why I'm not terribly outraged on behalf of these women.