No Hijab in Russian Passport Photos, Court
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Muslim women wear Hijab
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MOSCOW,
Aug 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A court in the central
Russian region of Tatarstan Friday, August 2, 2002, turned down a
complaint by three Muslim women who wanted to wear headscarves
(Islamic Hijab) in their passport photographs.
The
women accused the local government (of Tatarstan) of treading on their
constitutional rights by barring them from covering their heads in
keeping with Islamic teachings when photographed for identity
documents.
The
plaintiffs in the unprecedented case in Tatarstan's capital Kazan said
they would appeal the verdict in the Tatar Supreme Court, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
three women told the court that a Muslim woman can be seen without a
headscarf only by her husband or blood relatives; otherwise she sins
against God.
However,
a Tatar Interior Ministry expert Ramil Shaidullin testified that a
photograph is identifiable only if a person's face, forehead, cheeks
and the lower part of the chin are visible.
"We
understand perfectly well that we cannot tread on religious freedoms.
But orders are orders," Galina Fakhrudtinova, in charge of the
local passport agency, was quoted as saying by Izvestia news agency
earlier this month.
Some
80 percent of Tatarstan's 3.8 million population are Muslim Tatars.
The
republic sued for complete autonomy following the Soviet Union's
collapse, issuing its own passports and visas.
The
oil-rich region still enjoys a wide degree of autonomy within the
Russian federation under an agreement brokered with former President
Boris Yeltsin.
Russians
must carry passports with them at all times for identification
purposes.
A
mirror dispute exists in the secular Muslim Caucasus state of
Azerbaijan, where Muslim activists are suing the authorities over
their refusal to issue passports and identity cards to women who are
photographed for the documents with their head covered.
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