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November 2, 2006

UK: Muslim Woman In Veil Prevented From Boarding Bus

With a hat-tip to Marc at USS Neverdock, a report from Manchester Evening News highlights the hypocrisy and attention-seeking of some Muslim women who wear veils.

A 22-year old student from Oldham has a bus pass, in which a photograph of her face is shown. She tried to board a Number 59 bus in Greater Manchester, to go to Oldham, while covering up her face with a veil. She showed the male driver her bus pass, and allowed him to see what purported to be her face. The bus driver asked to see her face, to ensure that she was the person described on the bus pass. She refused. He would not let her travel on his bus.

The driver appears to have done his duty, and the student has now gone to the press to draw attention to her political desire to be recognized as an unrecognizable figure.

She said: "The driver asked to see my pass, but it has my photo on and he couldn't see my face. I told him I would not remove my veil and he said I couldn't get on."

"It is understandable because the driver has his duty, although he said it in quite a rude manner. It wasn't nice and other passengers were laughing," she said. "Bus drivers should be told how to deal with this situation. The veil is my choice and my religious duty. I am willing to go in and help the company so everyone knows what to do."

If a bus pass has a photograph, then there is no way that any person should wrap herself up and expect to travel. Otherwise anyone could wear a veil and carry the person's pass and defraud the bus company.

The student has said that she is offering to help the bus company draw up guidance for drivers.

A spokesman for the First Manchester transport company said: "We have investigated this incident thoroughly but found no complaint on our system. A woman has now identified herself as the person in this situation. However, an official complaint was not registered. Under regulations passengers are required to confirm their identity if using a photo bus pass. If passengers aren't able to do this they will still be able to travel by paying for their trip."

The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) is the trade union associated with bus drivers working for First Manchester and other companies. A CPT spokesperson said: "We have not heard of this happening before and as our meeting with First has not been held yet, we can't really talk about it."

A bus driver at Oldham station, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "What are we supposed to do? What is the point of a pass if you can't see someone's face? It hasn't happened to me yet but nobody has told me what I should do if it does."

If the veil was so important to this woman, maybe she should have insisted at the time she submitted her photograph that she would be depicted with her face covered. Unaware of the double standards of having an unveiled photograph and then demanding a politico-religious "right" to be respected as a faceless entity, the woman expects to change the policy of the bus company. This is what the veil issue is really about - a ploy by political Muslims to undermine or change the status quo.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 2, 2006 9:24 AM

Comments

Posted by: Sir Henry Morgan at November 2, 2006 12:45 PM

Posted by: Hungarian Crusader at November 2, 2006 2:19 PM

Posted by: Hungarian Crusader at November 2, 2006 2:22 PM

Posted by: pigtails not veils at November 3, 2006 12:16 AM

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