Passport photograph of girl's bare shoulders rejected 'as it may offend'
 

[Click on link to see picture]

REALLY bizarre. I mean, you can clearly see she's not NAKED in the picture. And offensive to Muslims? Yeesh. Are their views going to rule the way everyone acts nowadays?

I'm also curious because it doesn't say where they were going on holiday. Were they even going to a predominantly Muslim area?

The world is becomming quite wussified (toned it down for you overly-offended chaps) with this PC'ism.....

Thats about as simple as I can see it.

Well, first of all, if it isn't a Passport Office rule (which AFAIK it is not) and it's not a USPS rule (which, AFAIK it is not), then I hope the clerk was harshly punished for this infraction. Yeah, yeah... everyone makes mistakes. Bullshit! There's no reason that a clerk should make up random rules to hinder the daily business of a citizen.

Also, it might be offensive in a Muslim country? SO WHAT? Should the little girl have wrapped a scarf around her face, too? The lack thereof COULD be equally offensive. *sigh* I hate people...

Seems like much ado about nothing. As xepherys mentioned, it's not a rule. It's just a moronic clerk. Is an article about a single moronic clerk worthy of newspaper reporting? I suppose that the article could be about rampant PCness, but they don't discuss it? What's the purpose of the article then? To support views that Muslims are intolerant?

I suppose...that it could help to educate the masses. Had she known what was acceptable, and not, then perhaps Mrs. Edwards wouldn't have been so inconvenienced. Now...we all know.

Is it discussion worthy? Who knows? It seems, to me, that we can manage to create a six page discussion about a duck crossing the street...But, I see your point.

Therefore, in the interest of providing stimulating discussion, what, if anything, should become of the hapless postal clerk. I say we seperate him from his testicles, and have him watch as his scrotum is tossed sizzling into a bonfire. But, I can see where some may think that's a little unduly harsh. Still, you have to admit...he'll think twice before doing anything this jacked up again. Right?

I am offended By the Burka, Therefore all Muslim Women must become Nekkid In my presence, So it is written, so is done.

Oh....wait, Did I say ALL muslim women....uh....revision time.

Too late...

The stone scribes have no highlight...delete.

I do think that it is a worthy topic of discussion. Otherwise, I wouldn't have posted.

My angle on the discussion was "Why do articles like this get printed?" I don't think that this is an example of Muslims ruling the way that non-muslims act. Do Muslim nations even require shoulders covered on passports entering their countries? I don't know. I suppose they can if they want, but that should not affect passport policy in a secular nation like Great Britain. (And as indicated by the article, it apparently doesn't affect policy).

I think that it's just an ignorant person exerting power in their small domain- a mayor of munchkin land.

This is neither here nor there, but the postal clerk was a woman. So, unfortunately, scrotum sizzling is not a possibility.

Good question. Anyone feel like doing some research? I'm curious...and yet...lazy.

Is that original? Oh well...doesn't matter. Either way, I'm stealing it for future use. :D

Well...Hell! There goes my weekend :mad:
Now what am I gonna do?

just an FYI the article says they were going to the South of France....isnt that where the nude beaches are?

The south of france is practically a muslim nation. And the article verifies that. I think this was a british Post office in britain, just in case that wasn't clear.

I know the feeling.

I don't know where it's from. I didn't coin it. A friend of mine has used the phrase for years.

I tried to think of something equivalent with ovaries, but it's just not as funny.

You are indeed correct. I didn't notice it last night, but the Identity and Passport Service is a British office.

Maybe they should cover her shoulders with one of these.:)
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/a...ee_shirt_1.jpg

Talk about over compensating for somone else's POV. What bugs me about this is how much we have to govern our behavior just because somone else might get offended. You know what... if you don't like my bare shoulders, then don't look at them.

In all seriousness, the clerk was only trying to save the family from future hassles. Problem is, that ain't her job.

Probably a subject for another thread, but I'll post a bit of it here because I belive they are related...

I have tried very hard to keep an open mind in our post 9-11 world. I tend to be fairly liberal (nah... really? ;)), but I find it increasinly hard. With everything that is going on in the world, people seem to be regressing. Going backwards. Becoming more and more closed minded. Anybody else get that feeling?

This is HILARIOUS! Are you SURE it didn't come from National Lampoon?

The eyes look photoshopped to make them look bigger and sadder/more innocent.

I'm calling bullshit on this one.

It is bullshit, just not of the faked kind. Its done the rounds in the papers over here.

What you have here is the wonderful nature of British Beurocracy in all its matt (because shiny might reflect the sun into someones eyes) glory (though technically glory is too strong a word, it should be put as existence, that is less likely to offend religious people).

But was it the bureaucracy? Or was it a lone individual?

Those are some crazy eyes!

It was the beurocracy acting on the induvidual.

That is such a cute little face! How the hell can you not smile when you see that photo...

What I meant was that it didn't seem to be the whole bureaucracy. It seemed to be an individual worker not following the guidelines established by the bureaucracy.

It was an induvidual worker pre-empting guidelines issued by the bureaucracy, i will not have the bureaucracy escape any blame for this! They started this whole trend of stupidity, which caused the guy at the end to act like a muppet, for fear of bereaucracy, or something.

I don't like bureaucracy.:mad:

I just looked at the photo. She looks guilty to me.

What is this bureaucracy you speak of? It think that the Pentavirate is responsible:
Maybe it wasn't the Pentavirate, but I don't think it was "the bureaucracy". Like Soylent Green, bureaucracy is made of people. People are stupid individually and in groups, but I think that this is just an individual.

Am I the only one thinking that the clerk might have done her a favor?

Long delays while trying to enter another country, or even being denied entry, would be much more inconvenient.

Of course, you could always try to REASON with the official, but I'm told the Muslim ones can be somewhat rigid.

OH MY GOD!! IT TOOK TWO WHOLE HOURS TO FIX THE PROBLEM!! SOMEONE CALL THE FUCKING PRESIDENT SO THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN!!!!!!

She probably also left it to the last minute.

Nope. I think that as well. If she was right, she saved them a ton more time than 2 hours. If she was wrong, at least she was imparting personally-known information to help them, even if it didn't matter.

Since when does something have to be a "rule" for a government agency to freak out about something?

The bureaucracy here has no form, it is like the wind, you can't see it, but you know its there, and when enough of it gathers together, peoples shit gets fucked.

This country operates in fear of the bureacracy, thats the problem more than the actual bureaucracy itself.

I call poor training or an employee with ego issues. I'd reconsider any front desk position for an employee who felt comfortable misrepresenting rules to sell their position.

Experienced advice would be a favor. "Maam, you may want to use a different picture. Just a suggestion, but it isn't unusual for travelers to be delayed significantly by foreign customs agents when their passport pictures display what's considered too much exposed skin."

Provide what's required, add your experience, but let the customer decide. Masquerading opinion as policy does everyone a disservice.

Since it was in the US, it's bullshit and shouldn't be tolerated, now if this were at the other end, they just landed into high concentrated muslim population.

Well then it's their rules not ours. Doesn't matter what we think.


But anyway it was in the US so its stupid.

Menoman -

What are you talking about, anyway?

It sounds to me like the clerk was just looking out for them. Just send in another photo. Besides, a passport photo is supposed to be a head shot anyway. My shoulders can't be seen in mine.

The rules on passport photos, in American anyway, are pretty vague. It's up the the clerk to make the decision. I followed the rules they had in their literature and mine got rejected the first time. I didn't even have a bare shoulder showing.

agreed. and it's not out of the realm of possibility that the clerk didn't "officially" reject the picture, instead making a suggestion that the parent freaked out about. who knows, but it certainly looks like the clerk at least tried to do them a favor.

I know this much, if the family had been denied entry to the south of france due to a bare shouldered passport photo, we'd be reading a slightly different version of the story--one in which the parents are still pissed at the government, only for not having suitable guidelines in their passport rules that are in accordance with foreign countries'.

Doesn't matter to me, I didn't read the article I just heard about it and was under the impression it was here.


If it wasn't here, and they aren't US Citizens, and they weren't coming to the US, then I change my opinion to more along the lines of "ohhh I couldn't care less about it"