At long last, Ukrainian Muslimahs who chose to wear modest clothing can be relieved, for the long and exhausting campaign for the right to make ID pictures with their headscarves on is finally came to a close in their advantage.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided upon regulations specifying requirements for photos for any ID documents, including the ones confirming nationality and special status. They chose ICAO recommendations as guidelines, which allows to finally stray from the outdated regulations that not only did prejudice the believer’s rights, but were as well dramatically behind the times.

Just imagine: the Standard even defined the type of photo paper that should be used for making the ID pictures, not to mention the ban on having one’s headwear on! 

Those rules, like Sumerian cuneiform writing, were never changed since the time of their adoption - as well as the ancient writing totally foreign for a modern person. Foreign was the demand to mandatory remove one’s headwear.

Designed back in the USSR times, when atheism was forced upon the population, those regulations interfered with the rights of devout Muslims, Christians and Jews, who wished to cling to religious modest dress code

And finally Ukraine, a country that many times had declared the will to belong to Europe, finally recognized the internationally used standard, and images for ID purposes can now be taken in line with ICAO requirements!

Now one can legally take pictures in the headgear worn for religious purposes, given the face and its contours are clearly visible. The picture must be taken face-forward, with the face and forehead open. The face must be 70% of the picture, and the shoulders must be visible. The person photographed must gaze directly in the camera, eyes open.

A regular user of glasses for eyesight correctional reasons must wear them for the photograph, given that the rim is not heavy. 

As informed by the Government’s official newspaper, Uriadovyi Kurier, the decree was adopted in order to improve the Unified State Demographic Register and to bring the national legislation in compliance to the International Law, and also to introduce the unified requirements for taking ID pictures for Unified State Demographic Register and documents verifying one’s nationality, special status, or other IDs.

We reported earlier that in May 2019, the Ministry of Interior officials informed that they were working on means to ensure the religious rights of people by allowing them to take ID pictures in clothing prescribed by their religion.