A passport story

[arpad]

A five-year-old girl's passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders. Hannah Edwards's mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country.



The photograph was taken at a photo-booth at a local post office for a family trip to the south of France.

A Post Office spokesman said: "Our offices have a Passport Office template which says what the photograph should and shouldn't be.

"Bare shoulders don't come into that at all. We can't see any instruction to that effect so all we can do is apologise to Mrs Edwards. It was clearly a mistake made by the clerk at the post office.

********

"It was clearly a mistake made by the clerk". I do actually believe that.

And I think, that a Muslim should be horrified by that. Terrorists are slowly reaching their goal. To this clerk, "a Muslim country" already is a place where you can be killed people can be offended because of bare shoulders of your five year old girl.

And when I read the speech of Syrian dictator Assad I feel exactly like the clerk. Assad calls what Hezbollah did to Israel and Lebanon a "victory". Worse - I am sure that he actually thinks about that as a victory.

Do these guys realize what a truly scared nation can do? I doubt it.



Passport photograph of girl's bare shoulders rejected 'as it may offend'
By Paul Stokes
Telegraph.co.uk (Filed: 14/08/2006)


A five-year-old girl's passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders.

Hannah Edwards's mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country.

The photograph was taken at a photo-booth at a local post office for a family trip to the south of France.

Because of the way the camera was set up, the picture came out showing Hannah's shoulders.

The family had it signed and presented it at a post office with the completed form but were told that it would not be accepted by the Passport Office.

A woman behind the counter informed them that she was aware of at least two other cases where applications had been rejected because a person's shoulders were not covered.

Mrs Edwards, a Sheffield GP, said: "I was incensed. I went back home and checked the form. Nowhere did it say anything about covering up shoulders. If it had, I would have done so, but it all seems so unnecessary.

"This is quite ridiculous, I followed the instructions on the passport form to the letter and it was still rejected. It is just officialdom pandering to political correctness.

"It is a total over-reaction. How can the shoulders of a five-year-old girl offend anyone? It's not as if anything else was showing, the dress she wore was sleeveless, but it has a high neck." Hannah had her first passport when she was three months old. Her mother and her father, Martin, realised that it was due to expire during their holiday later this month and decided to renew it advance.

They aimed to complete the application on Saturday, the same day that Hannah was to be Sheffield Wednesday football team's mascot at Hillsborough stadium. Mrs Edwards was also on call from her surgery.

After the rejection at the post office, Mrs Edwards spent two hours taking Hannah for new pictures, filling in a new form and finding the necessary "responsible citizens" to endorse the photos.

"The people who had signed the original application were not available," Mrs Edwards said. "I had to chase around and eventually found a neighbour who was a teacher to sign the pictures.

"The Passport Office should set this sort of thing out in its forms if it is going to be so pedantic."

A spokesman for the Identity and Passport Service said it was not its policy to reject applications with bare shoulders.

"The guidance set out on the application form doesn't include it, this picture should have been absolutely fine," she said. "If people follow those rules there should be no problem.

"The Post Office obviously has its rules and we can't comment on that. We are aware of a case in the past where an error was made involving similar circumstances, although I don't know the exact details. Staff should be aware of the rules."

A Post Office spokesman said: "Our offices have a Passport Office template which says what the photograph should and shouldn't be.

"Bare shoulders don't come into that at all. We can't see any instruction to that effect so all we can do is apologise to Mrs Edwards. It was clearly a mistake made by the clerk at the post office.

"It is the first time we have heard of such a rejection and we will take it up with that particular office.

"We do around three million passport applications a year. It is one of our most popular services and it is normally extremely effective.

"We have a much lower rejection rate compared to applications submitted directly to the Passport Office."

Comments

[droid-1.livejournal.com]

Muslims are non-sane.
Christians are non-sane.
Israelis are non-sane.
Whaddya gonna do?

[goshen.livejournal.com]

To this clerk, "a Muslim country" already is a place where you can be killed people can be offended because of bare shoulders of your five year old girl.

To this clerk, the US must be a pretty Muslim country.

[arpad.livejournal.com]

Wish I knew.

[0qwerty0.livejournal.com]

South of France is a Muslim country, right? I thought so...

[arpad.livejournal.com]

Well, this is kinda reasonable, since a passport is for several years, not for one trip.

[http://users.livejournal.com/mask_/]

To this clerk, "a Muslim country" already is a place where you can be killed people can be offended because of bare shoulders of your five year old girl.

There is nothing wrong in being offended by bare shoulders or anything else. Anybody has a right to be offended (http://www.opendemocracy.net/faith-europe_islam/article_2331.jsp) or to offend. The problem appears when you start killing people just because you feel offended. For this clerk a muslim country is the one where people can be attacked for having bare shoulders. And, unfortunately, I can not say that "it is clearly a mistake".

[arpad.livejournal.com]

exactly.

[zyama-krendel.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's about what the "muslim expansion" is - a perfect example to give to someone who doesn't believe in it. It is already so natural for a british clerk to think, first thing off, about the impression that may be made upon muslims somewhere in Asia. The irony is that it was GB whose name once used to make "savages" tremble. :)

[aconite26.livejournal.com]

shit..

[ygam.livejournal.com]

Спасибо за статью! Молодец, Рушди!

[arpad.livejournal.com]

Easy. At least the girl is still alive & well :)

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

We don't need so many insane people running about. Now, what can we do about them?

[arpad.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Unless post-war Lebanon will somehow succeed in disarming Hezbollah, the situation in Middle-East will continue to deteriorate.

How far - we shall see.

But I have a feeling that in bad case we can have large scale Shia-Sunni conventional war. As for worst case - I have too many scenarios in mind that I do not want to talk about.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

I think that Lebanon is ultimately peripheral. The key issue is the ongoign rise of Iran and how that can be handled.

[arpad.livejournal.com]

peripheral indeed. but "war by proxy" technology tried by Iran and Syria there is not peripheral at all. if the trick will be successful - we should expect a global wave of shiite terror.

[iz-kustov-ved.livejournal.com]

::And when I read the speech of Syrian dictator Assad I feel exactly like the clerk. Assad calls what Hezbollah did to Israel and Lebanon a "victory". Worse - I am sure that he actually thinks about that as a victory.:: - For Hezbollah - it IS a victory. For all other world - it isn't. What was Hezbollah for everyone outside your region only a few monthes ago? And now it's a kind of a banner. I don't think, that it'll be disarmed :( The muslim civilization acts as looser last several years. But it's a big and dangerous looser. Sunni vs Shia war... Maybe.

[sergey-ilyin.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about south of France, but Brussels, for example, is a Muslim town. Definitely.

[sergey-ilyin.livejournal.com]

Crazy situation.

Who can be offended by passport photo except of border officer? I saw many of them and they always use their stamps at full speed.

Except of our, russian, border officers. Of cource. ;/