I always thought The Netherlands was way ahead of it’s time in regards of equality and freedom (gay marriages for example) but today I was proved wrong.

With the new rules for passport photos things have changed a little. You’re not allowed to smile, the background has to be a specific color and the distance between the camera and the person has to be exactly right to make the person’s head fit in a frame. Your ears have to be visible and your glasses have to be pushed back a bit so your eyes are clearly visible. This is all in regard of safety and has to do with anti-terrorism.

All of the above is not so bad, by itself. It’s easily done and photographers generally pay very good attention to all of this. Of course they are exceptions but in that case you should go back and demand new (free!) photos as every photographer is aware of this and has to make to photos like this by law. The only downside is that it makes for ugly photographs but hey, you can’t have it all.

What does this have to do with equality you might think? Well a hell of a lot. Today I read an article in a Dutch paper about a woman denied to wear her headscarf in the photo. And this is where equality comes in (or actually doesn’t come in in this case). One is allowed to wear a headscarf on the photo if it’s worn for religious or medical reasons. The woman in the article lost her hair due to chemotherapy two years ago as a treatment for her cancer. She then started to wear her headscarf. The photographer however insisted on her taking it off. Which by itself is bad enough; she always goes out with the headscarf on and her ears / eyes where visible.

It’s already bad enough if someone reminds you once again of your life threatening illness but to make matters worse there was someone in the store to get photos taken who was wearing a headscarf out of religious believes and she was allowed to keep hers on!

With that said I don’t want to blame the woman who was allowed to keep hers on, nor do I want to say anything bad about people wearing it for religious believes. That’s their choice and luckily we have the freedom here to do / say / believe what we want (to a certain extend and within the law of course).

It just sickens me to know that the photographer and the council apply rules as they feel necessary. Maybe the photographer is doing what the council is telling him / her but with that in mind the photographer could, or maybe should, have pointed out to the council that they are not going for equality and therefor go against Dutch legislation as well as the European Laws (e.g. EQUAL).

Luckily there are organizations standing up for this woman and others like her in the same position. It’s ridiculous that in this day and age, where equality is a big thing, you can still encounter this type of discrimination while getting your photograph taken¹…

You can see a photo of the woman in the article. Granted she is not showing her ears there but that was just a matter of getting them out from underneath the headscarf.

Plugged: Anastasia

¹ Of course I’m aware there is a lot of discrimination going on in this world in all kinds of ways and that is just as ridiculous as the example above!

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