Muslim Woman Sues over Drivers License [FL: Show your face on driver license photo; FL Woman: No]

The Orlando Sentinel ^ | Jan. 30, 2002 | P. Gutierrez and A. Rippel

[summer]

Muslim woman sues state over drivers license



By Pedro Ruz Gutierrez and Amy Rippel |
Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted January 30, 2002

WINTER PARK -- A 34-year-old woman is suing the state for suspending her Florida drivers license after she refused to have her photo taken without an Islamic veil.

Sultaana Freeman, a former evangelist preacher who converted to Islam about five years ago and wears the traditional niqab, says her religion doesn't allow her to show her face to strangers.

She filed suit earlier this month asking an Orange County judge to review her case.

"I don't show my face to strangers or unrelated males," Freeman said in an interview Tuesday at the office of her American Civil Liberties Union attorney. Only her emerald-green eyes and mascara showed through her veil.

The niqab is different from a hijab, or partial head covering, which doesn't hide the face and which some Muslim women wear for their drivers license photos.

Freeman, who is on an apparent collision course with the state, is bracing for a possible showdown on the fundamental freedoms of the U.S. Constitution.

"Florida law requires a full facial view of a person on their drivers license photo," said Robert Sanchez, a spokesman for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. "We have no choice but to enforce it."

Florida law says license applicants shall be issued "a color photographic or digital imaged drivers license bearing a full-face photograph."

ACLU lawyer Howard Marks argues that the law is vague. "I don't think the state statutes mandate a photograph," he said.

Marks said he also will cling to a state law on religious freedom that states the "government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion. "

Barry University Professor Robert Whorf said the state is probably within its right to ask for a full-facial photograph. "It makes common sense if the state of Florida were discriminating against her because of her religion; that would more likely be unconstitutional," he said. "If the state of Florida's rationale for insisting the veil not cover the face is for law-enforcement purposes that apply to everyone, then clearly the state of Florida is not discriminating against anyone for religious reasons."

To husband Abdul-Malik, also known as Mark Freeman, the state's action is an infringement on his and his wife's rights.

"It's a reflection of Sept. 11," said Abdul-Malik, 40, a 1980 Edgewater High School graduate and 1984 Florida State University graduate.

The Freemans said they only want recognition that their interpretation of Islam requires women to cover their faces.

Sultaana Freeman said she never had trouble in Illinois, where she worked as a civil engineer with the state's utilities company. That state, without objection, issued her license with a photo that showed only her eyes.

Her Florida license was issued with her face covered last February, but the state demanded a new photo without her veil in November. State record checks began after Sept. 11.

Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he knows of three other times Muslim women were refused Florida drivers licenses because of their headdresses. "I'm sure there's a lot more that's happening and not getting reported," he said.

Ali is asking the state to clarify its policy on religiously mandated clothes, and he wants the state to train employees about Muslim needs.

Yasmin Khan, 39, of West Palm Beachsaid she tangled with motor-vehicle officials when she was refused a drivers license in mid-December. Khan, a native of Trinidad and a Muslim, said she pulled her headdress back to her hairline -- as far as her religious beliefs would allow -- for the Dec. 17 photo but was told she needed to remove it completely. When she refused, she was denied a drivers license, she said.

"I decided to call anybody and everybody because I needed my license. I have kids, and I need to leave my home," she said.

Two days later, after getting help from local politicians, Khan was photographed with her hijab pulled back for her new drivers license.

In Daytona Beach earlier this month, Najat Tamim-Muhammad, 41, was refused a Florida identification card because she declined to remove her hijab.

Two years ago, Tamim-Muhammad, a native of Morocco, removed her headdress for the ID photo, but her husband said she did it only because she spoke no English and was unsure of her legal rights.

Idris Muhammad, her husband, said they plan to go back to the office to explain to a supervisor why she cannot remove the hijab. They hope to have the photo taken at that time.

"We understand the fear that comes with dealing with people you don't know or understand," he said. "In my opinion, it violates our equal rights under the law. Most people, when you sit down and explain why the women wear the hijab and the seriousness of not having it on, understand."

Amy C. Rippel can be reached at arippel@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5736. Pedro Ruz Gutierrez can be reached at pruz@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5620.

[GeronL]

It would certainly be an interesting experience starting a new religion. Maybe we could be 'diverse' and celebrate ALL Holidays?

we'd never work.

[xm177e2]

SHE LOOKS LIKE A NINJA!!!

Ninjas are way sweet.

[GeronL]

Even Groundhog Day can be a major religious holiday if we work at it

[summer]

We are on the right track here... FREEDOMISTS UNITE!

[GeronL]

Freedomism requires members to get their news from FR... hehe

[Cobra64]

Sounds too heavy handed. How about: "Freedomism."

Let's start a religion called "WASPRC" - White Anglo-Saxon-Protestant-Republican-Conservative. Then I could go on welfare as a minority instead of paying$35,000 a year to the Federal Government to house, cloth, and feed the blood-suckers coming into the USA demanding rights to be fed using our tax-payer's dollars.

I have the ultimate solution. Cash out all securities, buy gold, hide it in a cave and declare personal bankruptcy. "Bin Laden" style which thes people love.

[Cobra64]

SHE LOOKS LIKE A NINJA!!!

They cover their faces because they look like goats.

[MississippiMan]

Here's the salient point, and why she should lose this case beyond any shadow of a doubt: Driving is NOT a right. Not ANYWHERE in this nation is it a RIGHT. It is and always has been a PRIVILEGE and as such can be regulated in any way deemed necessary.

What a bunch of utter nonsense. Not surprised, but I sure am sick of crap like this.

Over and out.

MM

[dennisw]

Let them bend to us instead of the other way 'round. I'm sick of this bull.....I don't really care if she never drives again.

She should move to one of the many Muslim paradises_on_earth where her kind of BS will be the law of the land.

[Yup!!]

Sultaana Freeman, a former evangelist preacher who converted to Islam about five years ago...

Unbelievable. Sounds like she was really rooted in her faith...

[Cobra64]

What it looks like to me is that the real problem here that has people so wound up is that she's muslim.

No. It's called the rule of LAW. If you don not like American law, then live somewhere else, or change the law.

From a practical sense, I don't think I'd wear a frigging black Nazi SS uniform emblazoned with red swaticas on my arms.

You politically correct academics have no common sense and are devisive in the realities of the Western World.

Explain why the middle east and africa are still living the same way they have for 10,000 years. They like their life style. So let's leave them alone; and they can leave us alone. I like to eat steak, pork, shrimp, lobster dripping in butter and drink a glass of milk.

By the time your poisonous mentality sets in, those who built this country will be living by Muslim dietary laws.

Just go away and leave us alone; pollute another civilization, since you're incapable of developing one in your own country.

[Salman]

Well, then why did she move to US?

Sultaana Freeman, her husband Mark Freeman? Freeman!!??
I'm betting they're from the US.

She knew well ahead that this is not an islamic state.

Women are not allowed to drive in an Islamic state.

[Buckeroo]

The whole world is not against Muslims. Only your persective.

[Buckeroo]

So you agree with the sentiment that government shall rule our bodies. Are you a twit in true life?

[dennisw]

I went to that ninja website. Pretty funny. Hahhahaha.

[let freedom sing]

Illinois license requirements If you don't have SSN , 1) then show ID picture, 2) get temporary license, then get SSN, 3) then eligible to apply for regular license, 4) then show ID picture, 5) take tests, 6) take photograph (unspecific), 7) license granted. #1 #4

#6