ORLANDO, Fla., 29 May 2003 — 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 continued yesterday. A copy of the Qur’an 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, even for a legal document.
