{"id":4220,"date":"2011-07-13T23:38:03","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T03:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=4220"},"modified":"2011-07-13T23:46:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T03:46:50","slug":"australian-pastafaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/australian-pastafaria","title":{"rendered":"“Pastafarian” wins religious right to wear spaghetti strainer in driver’s license photo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
Nico Alm<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Austrian drivers license holders are only allowed to wear head coverings in official pictures for religious reasons.<\/p>\n

These include scarves for Muslim women, skullcaps for Jewish men, turbans for Sikh men and a speghetti strainer for\u00a0Nico Alm, who convinced officials that he is a\u00a0“Pastafarian.”<\/p>\n

The term was coined from “pasta” and “Rastafarian” —\u00a0a Jamaican sect.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Alm's driver's license<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A self-confessed atheist, Alm\u00a0told\u00a0officials\u00a0he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The group\u2019s website states that \u201cthe only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alm filed an official petition with the government\u00a0to allow him to wear his own kind of \u201creligious headgear\u201d in his license photo: a\u00a0spaghetti strainer.<\/p>\n

According to the BBC, Alm told authorities the culinary instrument was a requirement of his religion, \u201cpastafarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n

His three-year appeal including having to agree to a mental exam to determine whether he was competent enough to be driving on public roads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Nico Alm Austrian drivers license holders are only allowed to wear head coverings in official pictures for religious reasons. These include scarves for Muslim women, skullcaps for Jewish men, turbans for Sikh men and a speghetti strainer for\u00a0Nico Alm, who convinced officials that he is a\u00a0“Pastafarian.” The term was coined from “pasta” and “Rastafarian”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[184,8],"tags":[2201,1109],"class_list":["post-4220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-news","tag-news","tag-pastafarian"],"yoast_head":"\n"Pastafarian" wins religious right to wear spaghetti strainer in driver's license photo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/australian-pastafaria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Pastafarian" wins religious right to wear spaghetti strainer in driver's license photo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 Nico Alm Austrian drivers license holders are only allowed to wear head coverings in official pictures for religious reasons. These include scarves for Muslim women, skullcaps for Jewish men, turbans for Sikh men and a speghetti strainer for\u00a0Nico Alm, who convinced officials that he is a\u00a0“Pastafarian.” The term was coined from “pasta” and “Rastafarian”…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/australian-pastafaria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-14T03:38:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-14T03:46:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/files\/2011\/07\/pastafarian2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Pastafarian\" wins religious right to wear spaghetti strainer in driver's license photo","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/australian-pastafaria","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Pastafarian\" wins religious right to wear spaghetti strainer in driver's license photo","og_description":"\u00a0 Nico Alm Austrian drivers license holders are only allowed to wear head coverings in official pictures for religious reasons. 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