Sydney: An Australian Muslim woman has sparked a row after claiming a Sydney bus driver told her she couldn`t board because she was wearing a veil.
The mother-of-two said the driver told her she was not
allowed to wear her pink floral niqab, which covers her hair
and lower face, and was only let on the bus after a heated
argument.
"As I was stepping onto the bus the driver said `You
can`t get on the bus wearing your mask`," she told today`s
Daily Telegraph newspaper.
When she explained it was religious dress, the woman said
the driver responded: "Sorry, it`s the law."
"I told him it wasn`t the law and he said `You have to
show me your face,`" she added.
"I said to him, `There`s no difference between me and
that lady sitting there who chooses to not wear what I`m
wearing,`" she said.
The bus company, Hillsbus, said the driver was being
questioned over the claims.
"We are investigating it and doing that as quickly as we
can," a spokeswoman said. "We need to get to the bottom of it,
work out what happened and what went on, and what we need to
do about it."
Muslims make up about 1.7 per cent of Australia`s heavily
Christian population of almost 22 million, and religious
tensions have run high in recent years.
Bureau Report
