Police Association suggests burqa driving ban

Burqas, which cover the entire body and face, are seen being worn in Afghanistan. Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

The Police Association says women who wear a full burqa should not be allowed to drive on New Zealand roads.

Police have just issued a policy on how to identify women wearing face-covering clothing.

The policy says where appropriate a female officer should be responsible for confirming the identity as there is no cultural basis in Islam for refusing to unveil the face to another woman.

But Police Association president Greg O'Connor today questioned whether women wearing full burqas should be driving in the first place.

There were legitimate reasons for the burqa being inappropriate driving wear in New Zealand, he said.

"We deal with criminals who will very quickly cotton on to the fact that it's to their advantage to be driving around wearing burqas and that will happen because that's the sort of people we deal with.

"Secondly too, one could imagine that if one's belief system was so strong that you didn't want to show one's face then perhaps that belief system should extend to not driving."

Newstalk ZB reported that he went on to say that Muslim women were not allowed to drive in their own countries. However, Saudi Arabia is the only country to ban women from driving.

The full burqa is also relatively rare in Muslim countries, where the wearing of a head scarf or other covering is more common.

Mr O'Connor said there may need to be a law change to prevent people from wearing items of clothing while driving that would seriously impede their vision.

Javed Khan, President of the Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ), said he believed there would only be about 30 or 40 women in New Zealand who wear full burqas and of those only a "handful" wear burqas and drive.

Mr Khan said he had no difficulty with the police policy.

"If the police have strong suspicions about a person who is a driver and (they are) wearing a burqa then they are well within their rights to stop the car and do their investigation in line with the police policy.

"But saying that a person who is wearing a burqa cannot drive a car -- I think that is going a bit far. It is a matter of choice. People have a choice to wear whatever they want to."

He did not believe burqas made for unsafe driving as adequate space was left to see through.

Islamic Women's Council spokeswoman Anjum Rahman said Mr O'Connor's statement was based on ignorance and the Police Association should get its facts right before speaking out.

She said she had not seen any statistics showing burqas negatively affect driving.

- NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB