A nun was refused a driver license since she insisted to use her picture in religious dress.
by Massimo Introvigne
The Brazilian government should allow “the use of clothing or accessories related to belief or religion in photos of official documents.. as long as they do not prevent proper individual identification and the face remains visible.”
This is the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal, STF) that ruled on April 17 on the case of a Paraná Catholic nun from the Sisters of Santa Marcelina who was refused renewal of her driver’s license since she insisted on providing her picture dressed in religious clothing and wearing a veil.
The nun sued the Traffic Department in a case that had implications for other official documents and for Muslims and members of other religions. The decision of the Supreme Court was somewhat expected. The government itself and the Traffic Department had decided at the beginning of April, shortly before the Court’s decision, to amend their policies and allow the use of religious clothing in pictures used for official documents, including driver’s licenses.
The decision of the Supreme Court will now prevent future governments from altering the regulations again in a more restrictive sense.
The Brazilian Supreme Court’s verdict comes one week after French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal created controversies in Canada by publicly expressing his support to the controversial Quebec secularism law that prohibits many public sector employees from wearing religious symbol at work. While Attal used a visit to Canada to support the law, Canada’s federal government is considering joining the religious and educational organizations that have challenged the Quebec law at the Supreme Court.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
