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New police policy on burkha-wearing drivers unveiled
05 April 2006
By MARCUS BROGDEN
Police have announced new methods to identify Muslims driving in full burkha, but the union representing front-line police says the women should not be driving at all.
National road policing manager Superintendent Dave Cliff said the new policy had been introduced to cope with the increasing number of Muslims behind the wheel.
"As a consequence - just through sheer weight of numbers - people will be stopped who are wearing burkhas. It's just to ensure we have a way of dealing with that while respecting the wishes of Muslim women."
The policy says where appropriate a female officer should be responsible for confirming the identity as there is no cultural basis in Islam for refusing to unveil the face to another woman.
Mr Cliff said it was clear from liaising with the Muslim community a "vast majority" won't have any objection to exposing their faces.
"Muslim women have no objection to exposing their faces to another women and that's catered for within the culture and within our policy."
But Police Association president Greg O'Connor today questioned whether women wearing full burkhas should be driving.
There were legitimate reasons for the burkha being inappropriate driving wear in New Zealand.
"We deal with criminals who will very quickly cotton on to the fact that it's to their advantage to be driving around wearing burkhas and that will happen because that's the sort of people we deal with.
"Secondly too, one could imagine that if one's belief system was so strong that you didn't want to show one's face then perhaps that belief system should extend to not driving.
"That's because if there is one place where everyone is equal it is on the roads because it is for the simple reason that everything we do on the roads is about safety."
Mr O'Connor told NZPA implementing the new policy would create problems at road checks where police needed to identify large numbers of people.
"It's not a huge problem but it's going to become a bigger problem with increasing numbers of Muslims in New Zealand."
He said there may need to be a law change to prevent people from wearing items of clothing while driving that would seriously impede their vision.
Mr Cliff, however, said he couldn't see any problems implementing the ruling.
"A vast majority of people don't want to be held up any longer than necessary and that's why we don't expect to have any issues around this," he said.
President of Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ) Javed Khan told NZPA he believed there would only be about 30 or 40 women in New Zealand who wore full burkhas and of those only a "handful of women who wear burkhas and drive".
Mr Khan said he had "no difficulty" with the police policy.
"If the police have strong suspicions about a person who is a driver and (they are) wearing a burkha then they are well within their rights to stop the car and do their investigation in line with the police policy.
"But saying that a person who is wearing a burkha cannot drive a car - I think that is going a bit far.
"It is a matter of choice. People have a choice to wear whatever they want to."
He did not believe burkhas made for unsafe driving as burkhas left adequate space to see through.
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