Sikh student with turban and muslim
girl with scarves were denied a driver's license- Some lawmakers told
to sue the state Department of Public Safety
ONTGOMERY,Alabama Feb.13, 2004
- Some lawmakers Wednesday essentially told a group
of Muslims and Sikhs to sue the state Department of Public Safety over
an rule barring them from wearing head scarves or turbans while being
photographed for driver's licenses.
Dozens of Muslims and Sikhs from across Alabama came
to the Statehouse Wednesday to protest the policy, which Public Safety
officials say was enacted last March and is still under review. The
Muslims and Sikhs hoped to testify before a committee considering rule
changes to driver's license procedures, but most never got the chance.
The rule was not on the agenda of the Legislative Council/Joint
Committee on Administrative egulation Review, so committee Chairman
Rep. Demetrius Newton limited a handful of speakers to one-minute remarks.
The committee could take no action, he said.
Rajinder Singh Mehta, an aerospace engineer at NASA
in Huntsville, was allowed to speak to the committee. A Sikh who has
lived in Alabama for more than 35 years, he said he was disappointed
that Wednesday's trip didn't produce a solution. Obviously, the current
system will not hold up" in court, Mehta said.
Newton, D-Birmingham, who opened the meeting by telling
protesters the problem sounded like "a legal matter for you,"
later recommended they "take 'em (the Public Safety Department)
where they need to go."
Col. Mike Coppage, head of the department, attended
Wednesday's committee meeting but refused to comment on the rule.
Last month, the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
a Washington, D.C.-based group, brought attention to the policy after
two women in Mobile were denied driver's licenses because they refused
to remove their hijabs.
Caroline Elshamy, a Madison resident, said she was not
allowed to renew her driver's license at the license satellite office
at a Bruno's supermarket Jan. 27.
Elshamy said she has been able to wear her hijab, which
covers her hair but not her face, in driver's license photos for 20
years, the last 14 in Alabama. The last two times she renewed her license
in Alabama without incident. But when she tried to renew her license
last month, she was denied.
"I had to choose between adhering to my religious
beliefs and having a driver's license," she told the committee.
Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, said she is bothered
by the stories told by Mehta, Elshamy and others about their inability
to obtain or renew driver's licenses.
Figures said she favors establishing a subcommittee
of the Legislative Council to deal specifically with driver's license
regulations. Wednesday, the committee also heard from legal immigrants
and their lawyers who couldn't get driver's licenses because of Department
of Public Safety rules.
Lawmakers voted to reject changes the department wants,
saying the revisions wouldn't help the people who testified before the
committee Wednesday, and urged department officials to come back with
rules that would.
Public Safety officials offered lawmakers few answers
to the questions raised Wednesday. Newton chastised the department's
lawyer, Michael Wayne Robinson, saying the agency seemed unprepared
to address the committee's concerns. "Every time we ask you a question,
it's something you're working on," Newton said.
On the issue of religious head coverings, Figures said
the department's response didn't make much sense.
"It was confusing to me that (the department) was
saying they're still studying this and they're still asking questions
about the constitutionality of it, yet they've enacted it and they're
enforcing it," she said.
Mehta, the NASA engineer, came to Montgomery Wednesday
on behalf of Chitratan Singh Sethi, a University of Alabama in Huntsville
student who was denied a driver's license about 15 days ago.
Sethi, who also attended Wednesday's meeting, is an
industrial engineering student studying for his master's degree at UAH.
He immigrated from India about six months ago, he said.
In his prepared remarks, Mehta explained the importance
of the turban to the Sikh faith.
The turban is used to cover the uncut hair Sikhs are
required to grow, called the "kesh." It is one of five mandatory
parts of the Sikh faith, Mehta said. "For a Sikh, the turban is
an integral part of their faith. Asking a Sikh to remove the turban
is asking to conduct a strip search," he said.
Mehta also argued that while the state agency says it
wants to ensure accurate, identifiable pictures on driver's licenses,
a Sikh appears in public only when wearing a turban.
Dr. Surjit Singh Sidhu, a resident of Killen in Lauderdale
County, said the state policy "deprives us of our religion."
Sidhu, who retired from the International Fertilizer Development Center
in
Muscle Shoals, said the rule treats Sikhs, Muslims and others - no matter
how long they have lived in this country - as "noncitizens."
*Source 02/13/04h
tp://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1076611553150350.xml