Zerhouni : “We have Fatwas or Religious decrees allowing biometric measures”

The Algerian Minister of the Interior and Local Assemblies, Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni, has revealed that the measures related to the issuing of biometric passports and national identity cards don't compel the veiled women to take off entirely their headscarves and don't also oblige bearded men to shave completely their beards for the taking of biometric photographs. 

• Nourredine Zerhouni said, to this effect, that the veiled women had only to lift up their headscarves and to adjust them behind their ears, and the bearded men to curtail their beards so that the contours of the face should be plainly visible.
• The Interior Minister assured that his ministerial department had consulted over the issue Imams and Islam religion experts who declared that this procedure was permitted.
• Zerhouni stressed, however, that the Algerian seeking to acquire  biometric passports and biometric national identity cards had no other choice but to submit to the new-fangled measures enforced by the Algerian authorities or otherwise be subjected to rigourous and minute controls which could harm their dignity at the level of international airports.
• The Interior Minister further indicated that all the world countries were currently striving to make their airports very safe, an objective deemed as legitimate by all and sundry, he asserted.