What Do You Think ?
 

Muslim Woman Sues to Wear Veil for License

By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press Writer
Posted May 28 2003, 2:01 AM EDT

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Experts in Islamic law are being called to testify in the lawsuit of a Muslim woman fighting a state order to take off her veil for her driver's license photo.

Sultanna Freeman, 35, says Florida's insistence on photographing her face violates her religious rights.

"I don't unveil ... because it would be disobeying my Lord," Freeman testified Tuesday at the start of her non-jury trial.

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. "I don't think there can be any doubt there is a public safety interest."

Freeman's attorneys argue that state officials didn't care that she wore a veil in her Florida driver's license photo until after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, an allegation the state denies.

"This is about religious liberty. It's about whether this country is going to have religious diversity," said Howard Marks, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

Both sides planned to call experts in Islamic law at the trial, which continues Wednesday. A copy of the Quran has been entered into evidence.

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.

Nine months later, 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 claims 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.

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The veil should come off.

:321GFY

Follow the laws of the country you live in or get out.

when women visit muslim nations, they wear a burka out of respect and the law.

Agreed. It's a no-brainer.

I think they should deport that bitch. We have Sikh cops in Canada that wear turbans instead of traditional RCMP hats. Nothing like seeing a packie in a turban issuing a ticket....They should deport those fuckers too. :BangBang:

She is an American, Born and raised here.

WOW, is this thing still going on? I would have thought this was settled by now.

It's pretty simple: the whole point of a photograph on a drivers license is identification. If you obscure your head with cloth, the picture is useless. We all have to have that picture. Take off your scarf or don't drive. I don't see the problem.

SpaceAce

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the courts.