I'm not sure why this is news.. Throughout the world ID cards must have a picture on them. How do Muslim women who wear a burka or niquab vote in the UK?
Muslim women are having their face veils removed so their identities can be checked before they take driving tests.
The move by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) follows a spate of cases in which bogus learner drivers impersonated friends or relatives and took the test for them.
Now the DSA has ordered female test examiners to discreetly remove the face veil - or nikab - from Muslim women in a private room along with a female chaperone or interpreter.
They will then match the women's faces against a photo ID from their provisional driving licence or passport to ensure entrants are genuine.
Posters featuring a photograph of two Muslim women wearing veils, and written in Arabic and English, were put up last week at test centres in Muslim communities all over Britain. The poster says: 'Dear customers, Did you know you can ask a chaperone to escort you on your driving test?
Anyone aged 16 or over can go with you but they must not speak during the test.
Alternatively you can bring an interpreter, who is over 16 and not your driving instructor.
The interpreter must only repeat the instructions given by the examiner.
'At the test centre, the examiner will need to check your identification against your photo card. To do this you will need to remove your nikab. Where possible this will be conducted in a private area and where possible by a female examiner.'
Last year, 260 people were investigated by the DSA after trying to impersonate others who were supposed to be taking the test. So far this year, 250 such cases have been investigated. It is not known if any involved Muslims wearing veils because separate figures on religion and ethnicity are not collected.
The DSA said in a statement: 'An essential part of the test is the check by the examiner that the person being tested is who they say they are.
'We discovered many Muslim women did not know that they could request a female driving examiner, where present, to complete the identification part of a test.
'The DSA agreed to put this policy in place because we strive to offer an excellent and fair service to all people regardless of gender, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation and age.'
Source: Daily Mail, hat tip Females Need Faces
1 comment:
This reminds me of something I was told by a muslim work colleague. Some years ago the Land Rover factory in Solihull near Birmingham was recruiting for their production line. There is a large muslim population in Birmingham and may applicants came from amongst their numbers. The applicants who were subsequently offered jobs spoke good English and were able to demonstrate an adequate level of competance for the job. When, however, they turned up for work, many appeared to have lost their skills with English and had no aptitude for the work they were hired to do. My mislim colleague gleefully explained that the person who attended the interview gave a false name and his brother/cousin/friend turned up for the job. No doudt the company had a devil of a job sorting the mess out, which I'm sure cost it dearly in compensation. needless to say Land Rover now photograph job applicants as art of the interview process.
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