Britain’s top judge has referenced medieval Quranic sources and “sharia law” to justify asking Muslim women to remove the full-face veil and burqa at some points in court.
Women giving evidence in court should show their face to some people, but could remain covered during the trial, Baroness Hale of Richmond, the president of the Supreme Court, said.
She made the comments during the ‘Sultan Azlan Shah lecture’ at the Oxford Centre For Islamic Studies, which is supported by 12 Muslim and Islamist states and has taken more than two million pounds off the Saudi Arabian royal family.
The speech, on “religious dress” in the workplace and educational institutions, argued that “in many cases headscarves... could be readily accommodated with a degree of flexibility on all sides.”