RNA - Judges must show respect to women who choose to keep their faces covered due to their religious beliefs, the UK’s most senior judge has said.
Lord Neuberger said judges must have “an understanding of different cultural and social habits”, in their bid to show fairness to those involved in trials.
Addressing the Criminal Justice Alliance, the Supreme Court president said: “It is necessary to have some understanding as to how people from different cultural, social, religious or other backgrounds think and behave and how they expect others to behave.
“Well known examples include how some religions consider it inappropriate to take the oath, how some people consider it rude to look other people in the eye, how some women find it inappropriate to appear in public with their face uncovered, and how some people deem it inappropriate to confront others or to be confronted - for instance with an outright denial.”
On January 22, 2014, Judge Peter Murphy maintained enforced Law no. 2010-1192 of 11 October 2010, effectively prohibiting the Muslim face-veil while giving evidence in British courts, in the case of then 22-year-old Rebekah Dawson, who ultimately refused to obey the judge's order to uncover her face while testifying, culminating in a media firestorm.
Nearly six months later, on July 1 2014, Europe’s top rights court upheld a French ban on Islamic full-face niqab.
The decision criticized as shocking by rights organizations and Muslim women after the court accepted the Paris argument that it encouraged citizens to "live together".
According to a 2011 census, Britain is home to a Muslim community of nearly 2.8 million, or 4.4% of the total population.
While hijab is an obligatory code of dress for Muslim women, the majority of Muslim scholars agree that a woman is not obliged to wear niqab.
Scholars believe it is up to women to decide whether to take on the veil or burqa, a loose outfit covering the whole body from head to toe and wore by some Muslim women.
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