Gal Bags on the Witness Stand

Canada isn't the only infidel land where there's an issue about a woman being able to give sworn testimony in court while wearing a gal bag. They're having the same go-round with it Down Under:

A Perth judge is set to decide this week whether a Muslim woman can wear a full burqa while giving evidence before a jury in a fraud case.

WA District Court Judge Shauna Deane is due to hear submissions on Thursday from lawyers for the prosecution and defence regarding the witness who wishes to wear the burqa, also called a niqab.

Er, actually, a burqa is the sack in toto, while the niqab is merely the facial shmatta portion which may be worn with or without the sack. And why would any chick feel the need to go incognito?

The woman is a strict Muslim who does not want to show her face to men.

Strict Muslim men don't want her to show her face (a way of exerting control over her), more like. But why would that present a problem in court?

Defence lawyers have raised concerns about how the jury is expected to read the woman’s facial expressions if they cannot see her face.

Can we at least be honest enough to admit that if a mask's in place, it's well nigh impossible to read anyone's  face. But, now, how long has this case been going on and what's it all about?  

On Tuesday, the jury in the case was discharged after the estimated time for the fraud trial of a Muslim college director blew out from 10 days to five weeks, causing attendance problems for five jurors.

A new jury will be empanelled when a retrial is approved...

Anwar Sayed has been charged with fraudulently obtaining $1.125 million from the state and federal governments by falsifying the number of students at the Muslim Ladies College of Australia in Kenwick in Perth’s south.

Sayed from Canning Vale, is the director of Muslim Link Australia, which runs the school...

The Muslim Ladies College of Australia, huh? Sounds ever so genteel and "old-fashioned". A regular haven, I'm sure, for "old-fashioned" burqa-wearers.

Update: Looks like there's more to the story than the above yahoo! story revealed. There's this, from 2007, in the Australian:

Zubair Sayed, an Afghan war criminal, until December 9 2007 running "terrorist making factories" in Australia at taxpayers expense.

A PERTH Muslim school has been shut down for focusing too heavily on religious instruction, as its director was charged with fraud over the alleged theft of $355,934 from the college's federal funding.

State Education Minister Mark McGowan yesterday closed Muslim Ladies College in Kenwick after a departmental investigation found the school was employing unregistered teachers and failing to comply with the West Australian curriculum.

With only five days to go until the end of term, Mr McGowan said departmental staff were working with parents to place their children in new schools from next year.

A separate police investigation has resulted in the arrest of the kindergarten to Year 12 school's acting director, Zubair Sayed.

Mr Sayed, who has been filling in as director of the school in Perth's southeastern suburbs since his brother Anwar went to Afghanistan earlier this year, appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Saturday charged with fraud.

Police prosecutor Scott McCormick told the court Mr Sayed wrote a Commonwealth Bank cheque for $355,934, drawing on federal government funding for the college.

It is also alleged the school had been overclaiming for both state and federal government funding.

"This is a matter which is of extreme seriousness, whereby Mr Sayed obtained public money from the commonwealth by deceit," Sergeant McCormick said.

He told the court that detectives had discovered the money had been sent to Pakistan...

To aid all those Pakistani widows and orphans, no doubt.