Muslim Women Should Respect Local Customs, Lose the Head Covering

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

This is political correctness run amok. An Islamic rights group in Michigan and Raneen Albaghdady, a Muslim woman there are suing a judge in the state, claiming that he requested that she remove her hijab, or religious head covering,

when she was petitioning for a name change, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in a U.S. district court in Michigan ... The lawsuit says Callahan "insisted" that Albaghdady, a naturalized citizen, remove her hijab and that she eventually complied. It says the judge denied Albaghdady's petition for a name change, saying that she had filed her petition five days too early.

I have traveled the world and I've always observed local customs on dress. I can't imagine emigrating to Saudi Arabia and being able to dress there the way I do here. Constitutional experts and civil libertarians are throwing rotten tomatoes at me as I speak, I am sure. But I do believe in the power of the phrase, "when in Rome, do as Romans do."

I am not Catholic, nor am I Muslim. But I have visited many of those religions' great churches and mosques. I have always dressed modestly during those visits and covered my head. Judges control how people dress in their courtrooms just as some places of worship post dress codes. Each should be respected, no matter what country one is in.

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