Burka wearer may challenge Victoria Supreme Court ban

A woman banned from entering the Victorian Supreme Court for wearing a burka may challenge the judge’s ruling.

Two Muslim women leave the Melbourne Magistrate's Court. after refusing to stand for the magistrate. Picture: Paul Jeffers.

A woman who was banned from entering the Victorian Supreme Court for wearing a burka may challenge the judge’s ruling at future hearings of her husband’s trial.

Justice Christopher Beale told the court on Tuesday that all people must show their faces in his courtroom and did not allow the woman in.

“I require anybody who comes into the court — and all are welcome — but anybody who comes into the court, for their face to be uncovered,” he said.

The woman did not want to remove her niqab and complied with Justice Beale’s ruling, but the defendant’s lawyer indicated she would seek exemptions from the burka ban on religious grounds going forward.

The woman’s husband, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is an accused terrorist.

Last year, a group of women who supported the defendant ignored protocols at the Magistrate’s Court and refused to stand when the magistrate entered the room.

The Supreme Court’s website says visitors to the court must “dress appropriately” with hats and sunglasses banned. But this is the first known case of a burka-wearer being refused entry.

A court spokesman told The Herald Sun that judges ultimately make the decision about who is allowed in their courtroom.

Victoria’s state opposition last year proposed jailing or fining women who refused to show their faces in court.

“If you don’t respect the court, you don’t respect the law,” State Liberal leader Matthew Guy said.

The state’s Attorney General Martin Pakula said the Coalition’s proposal was unnecessary.

Islamic Council of Victoria vice-president Adel Salman told the Herald Sun the woman’s human rights had been “violated.”

“I think the judge’s decision is unreasonable and concerning,” he said.

“Women choose to wear it. It’s part of their faithfulness to God. To ask them to remove it is quite intrusive and, in some cases, quite traumatic.”