Australia: 'Lowering veil on men's rights'

Article here. Excerpt:

'LAST week the Perth District Court imposed a Muslim cultural practice on a group of non-Muslim men.

Judge Shauna Deane told the men - all journalists - to leave her court so a Muslim woman could feel free to give evidence in a fraud trial without wearing her niqab.

Deane had earlier ruled that Tasneem, whose last name has been suppressed, had to remove her face-covering veil so the jury could read her face as well as hear her words.

But the male journalists were ejected, despite applications from the Seven, Nine and Ten networks to let them stay.

No doubt Deane thought this a fair compromise. Tasneem's Muslim beliefs - in this case, that a woman not show her face to men outside her family - were infringed upon only to the extent required for justice to operate fairly.

Male jurors could see her, but male journalists not.

But what of traditional Australian values? What of a man's right to see justice being done? To report it? To be free of sexual discrimination at work?'