The Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles has apologized to a 16-year-old Arab-American who was told to remove her Islamic headscarf before the agency would take her driver’s license picture.
Muslim women are allowed to wear the scarves, known as hijab, in their driver’s license pictures as long as they do not cover their faces, said DMV Director Jennifer Cohan.
“We called her and apologized profusely,” Cohan said. “This could have been handled with a little more sensitivity on our part.”
During the incident, which happened last Wednesday at the DMV office just outside Georgetown, another customer made a derogatory comment to the girl, she said. The DMV eventually allowed the girl to keep her hijab during her picture, but she is visibly upset in the photograph, Cohan said.
The agency has offered to retake the picture.
The Pennsylvania chapter of the
Council on American-Islamic Relationspraised the DMV for its “prompt and appropriate action” of apologizing to the teenager and offering to retake the picture.