Michigan and Muslims Compromise over Veil

June 11, 2003

Source: The Detroit News

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On June 11, 2003 The Detroit News reported that in Michigan, "women who by tradition cover their faces in public routinely take those veils off to be photographed for driver's licenses. Other Muslim women, who wear veils covering their hair, are allowed to keep their headdresses on for driver's license photos. It's a compromise between the state and the city's large Muslim population that has worked for years, a rare accommodation of bureaucracy and religion in a world where the two often lock horns. A highly publicized court case in Florida ended Friday, with a judge ruling that a 35-year-old mother of two must remove her niqab, a veil covering most of her face, for a photograph if she wants a driver's license. The ruling caused little stir in the city [Dearborn, MI] with America's largest concentration of Arab Americans."