Simon Corbell has announced he’s bringing new laws into the Legislative Assembly to allow police to make people take head coverings off.
He’s trying really hard to not make this about muslim women wearing the burqa:
“It is very important to note that this is in no way an attempt to ban head coverings of a particular culture or religious group, but rather is a law to allow legitimate enforcement activities that are essential for road safety.”
The amendments include provisions to enable people who have cultural or religious concerns about uncovering their face in public or in front of a male police officer or authorised road transport official to request that they uncover their face only in front of a female police officer or female official. These provisions also ensure that if requested, reasonable privacy is provided while the person?s face is uncovered.
Mr Corbell said the laws also ensured that if part or most of the person?s face was covered by something that was necessary for the person?s medical treatment, the person is not required to remove that item.
“After consulting with the Islamic community, via the ACT Muslim Consultative Council, information on the proposed laws has been translated into Arabic for wider circulation within the Islamic community. The Human Rights Commission was also consulted on the proposed laws. These groups did not express concerns during this consultation process about the new laws.”
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What’s Your opinion?
burqahat removal powers for policeA quick search of the RA photo archive should prove the point. Whats the ratio of criminal head gear?
The logic defies me. Dozens of robberies each day are committed with hoodys used to obscure the face. Yet, it is the burqa that is hysterically feared.
Mysteryman said :
Colour me unsurprised
TheDancingDjinn said :
Then there shouldn’t be anyone inconvenienced, should there?
I think its obvious the “hoody” that poses the greater threat to our society. Are Hoodies to be uncovered.
TheDancingDjinn said :
I suspect there’s a correlation between wearing a burqa or other islamic full face cover and not driving.
I think this legislation is a good idea.
It is not necessarily about the removal being needed to identify an offender. It is simply about knowing who the person is.
If the cops can’t look at your face, I could be one of those “licence suspended until two thousand and dickety three” drivers of a white commodore – but I show the cops the licence of someone else, and they can’t tell who it is.
So long as the coppers are given the appropriate training and understand the cultural aspects involved I don’t have a huge drama with this.
The potential for such laws to be abused by the Police is quite high, I would imagine. So hopefully that is managed competently and respectfully.
dvaey said :
Road safety generically can mean anything that occurs on the roads i.e. breath tests, speeding, being pulled over for dangerous driving.
The removal of the burqa would assist in the identification of the offender. I believe there has been a few occasions were people sporting the burqa have been fined then later backflipped and denied ever being in the vehicle…
I’d like someone to point me in the direction of a woman driving here in Canberra while wearing a burqa. – i can honestly say i have not seen a woman wearing that perticular headdress here. I have seen Hijabs (the regular see your face kind), and and older woman wearing a niqjjab (the ones that looks like a ninja) but not a burqa. Has anyone else seen one? and if so was she the age to drive and not like 80 or something?
The whole thing arose from a case in Melbourne or Sydney (forget which) where a Muslim woman was asked (or forced, depending on whose version you believe) by a police officer to remove her head covering so that she could be identified during a traffic stop. From memory, if you don’t remove your head covering then you can’t be identified, and if you can’t be identified then you can’t be charged with a traffic offence.
Im wondering exactly what giving police the power to remove a burqa, has to do with road safety?
So that means that servos that insist that motorcyclists take off their helmets must call the cops, who are the only ones with the authority to enforce removal?
I always take off my helmet but I know others who would rather not, specially those with fliptops.
Cool: the strike-out in the title of this article is causing WordPress to have a hernia.