The Miami Herald reports that if Sultaana Freeman [mug shot] want’s a Florida driver’s license, she cannot cover her face with a veil for her photo ID.
Howard Marks, Freeman’s attorney, said the ruling would be appealed. The ACLU of Florida said it was disappointed in Thorpe’s statement that while Freeman “most likely poses no threat to national security,” others may take advantage of a ruling in her favor to threaten lives. “So we have to infringe on Freeman’s religious beliefs because of what someone else might do,” ACLU legal director Randall C. Marshall said. “It seems to be a funny kind of interpretation on how the law should apply.”
What if her beliefs involved beating up children?
Freeman, a convert to Islam previously known as Sandra Kellar, started wearing a veil in 1997. She had a mug shot taken without the veil after her arrest in Illinois in 1998 on a domestic battery charge involving one of twin 3-year-old sisters who were in her foster care. Child welfare workers told investigators that Freeman and her husband had used their concerns about religious modesty to hinder them from looking for bruises on the girls, according to the police records. The girls were removed from the home.
Sultaana Freeman should not feel too bad–in Saudi Arabia she would not be able to wear a veil to cover her face for a photo ID–in fact, she in Saudi Arabia women are not even permitted to drive. (Postscript: In Muslim countries where women are allowed to drive, such as Iran, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan, women do not cover their faces for a photo ID.)