June 3, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1424

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MOSCOW, June 2: Russia is to allow women to wear a headscarf for religious reasons in identity photographs following a Supreme Court ruling last month that overturned a previous ban, media reported Monday.

“Citizens whose religion does not allow them to appear in public without headwear will be allowed to carry headwear on their passport photographs on condition that it does not cover their faces,” the Interfax news agency quoted Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov as saying.

On May 15 the Supreme Court ruled that Muslim women could follow Islamic tradition and keep on their headdress on ID documents, responding to an appeal by 10 women from the central Russian republic of Tatarstan who had complained that the interior ministry had refused to accept their documents.

The women had argued that they had to follow the religious code laid down in the Holy Quran which states they must cover their bodies, except their face and hands, when in public.—AFP