The State of Florida has Allowed A Muslim Woman to Have Her Drivers License Photo Taken with Her Face Covered–Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
The story claims that a Muslim woman objected to uncovering her face for a drivers license picture, so the state of Florida allowed it. The story then goes on to quote a commentary written by someone about immigrants in the United States after September 11. The Truth
At the time this eRumor started circulating, it was in reference to the case of a 41-year-old women who had applied for an ID card, not a drivers license. According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Najat Tamim-Muhammad did not want to violate her Moslem belief and uncover her face in public. Florida officials told her, however, that the ID card needed to show enough of her face to confirm her identity. A compromise was worked out that satisfied her need to respect the rules of her faith and the state of Florida’s need for enough of her face to be seen.
Later, another similar case came up involving a woman named Sultaana Freeman who wore a covering that allowed only her eyes to be seen. She was told she would have to remove it for the photo. She refused and filed a lawsuit. She lost and in June, 2003, she was told that if she wanted a driver’s license, she would have to consent to having a picture taken with her face uncovered.
A companion eRumor also started about Sultaana Freeman that she was a convert to Islam whose previous name had been Sandra Keller, that she had been previously arrested in Illinois for battering a foster child, and that there was a mug-shot of her from that occasion without her face covered.
According to www.thesmokinggun.com, that is true and they have the pictures posted.
CLICK HERE for that link.
The article quoted is a portion of something that was written by Air Force Veteran Barry Loudermilk in the aftermath of September 11 and published in a newspaper in Georgia. CLICK HERE for more on the article.
Last updated 7/16/02