Moscow recently announced a relaxation of regulations pertaining to applications for citizenship by foreign nationals, including a significant change allowing headscarves and hijabs in passport photographs, as disclosed by the Russian Interior Ministry last Wednesday.
Effective from May 5, the new law permits individuals whose religious beliefs dictate the necessity of wearing a head covering in front of strangers to submit passport photographs with appropriate head coverings, ensuring that the oval of the face remains visible.
However, photographs with scarves obscuring the chin, either partially or entirely, will not be accepted, the report clarified.
This update aligns with existing provisions that allow Russian citizens to wear hijabs in photographs for various official purposes, such as passport applications, drivers’ licenses, work permits, and patents.
Biysultan Khamzaev, a member of the State Duma Security and Anti-Corruption Committee, emphasized that these new regulations aim to accommodate religious beliefs while also upholding the state’s security interests, particularly regarding the identification of individuals through video monitoring systems.
Historically, during the Soviet era, passport photographs were uniformly submitted without headscarves or hijabs. However, following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Muslim women began including photographs with hijabs until 1997, when the practice was prohibited by authorities. Subsequently, in 2003, the Russian Supreme Court deemed this ban unlawful. As of the legislation passed in 2021, individuals whose faith mandates wearing a head covering for religious reasons are permitted to submit photographs with the head covering intact.
