Muslim not allowed to wear veil in court

AN AUSTRALIAN Muslim woman who sought permission to keep her face and head covered while she gives evidence at an upcoming trial was told by a judge yesterday she would have to remove her veil.

The case is the first time in Australia that a court has had to consider whether a witness should be allowed to keep their face hidden behind the type of veils some Muslim women wear as a mark of modesty.

The case has drawn considerable interest nationally, drawing comparisons to France and Belgium, where efforts have been made to ban the wearing of Islamic face veils.

Western Australia state District Court Judge Shauna Deane ruled it would be inappropriate for the woman, identified in court only as "Tasneem", to be completely veiled while giving evidence because the jury should not be impeded in its ability to assess her demeanour.

She is a prosecution witness in a case against the director of a company that ran a Muslim women's college in Perth. The director, Anwar Sayed, is accused of inflating the number of students at the school in 2006 and 2007 to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars in state and federal grants.

Tasneem's lawyers had sought a ruling on whether she could wear the niqab - garb that covers the face and head, and leaves only the eyes exposed. It has been referred to in the case in Australia as a burqa, the all-encompassing garment that many women in Afghanistan and Pakistan wear in public.

The lawyers argued the woman's discomfort without the garment could affect her testimony.

Judge Deane said Tasneem had a "right to religious expression", but she was denying the request to be "fair" to everyone involved in the trial.