A group of Sikhs from around Europe is issuing a legal challenge to the French law that bans the wearing of turbans on ID document photos. A case was lodged before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg on 11 June.

The director of United Sikhs, Mejindarpal Kaur, said that “if left unchecked, the French law, which undermines the freedom for thought conscience and religion, will have a domino effect on this freedom globally.”

The case before the ECHR will be the first such since France passed a law in March 2004 banning the wearing of religious symbols, including the Sikh turban, in public schools. A British Member of the European Parliament, Neena Gill, urged France and other EU member states to reflect upon the British model. “In Britain those wearing articles of faith including Turbans are treated equally. Many Turban-wearing Sikhs are police officers, army officers and judges. Therefore I would ask French authorities to reconsider their position and treat Sikhs as equal members of their society,” said Gill, who lives in the UK.

Shingara Mann Singh, 52, a French national for over 20 years, told journalists that his replacement driver’s licence was refused by the French authorities in 2005 and again in 2006. France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil D’Etat, has ruled that public security justifies a law which requires Sikhs to remove their turbans to be photographed for driver’s licences. “I will give up my head but not my turban, which covers my unshorn hair,” he underlined.

Shingara Singh’s lawyer, Stephen Grosz, told the press conference that “forcing a Sikh to remove his turban is an affront to his personal dignity and an insult to his religious beliefs. France is almost alone in imposing this unnecessary requirement,” he added.

Another lawyer, Francois Jacquot, from France, said that almost every country in the world where there is a Sikh community allows a Sikh to wear his turban on ID photographs. An estimated 10,000 Sikhs live in France. Gill said Sikhs were facing similar problems in Belgium and Germany also.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/sikhschallengefrenchturbanban.html