A court has told a Muslim woman she must remove her niqab while driving or face criminal charges.

The driver, who has not been named, had appealed to the Hesse Higher Administrative Court in central Germany for a religious exemption from laws banning all drivers from covering their faces.

An earlier ruling by road licensing officials had told her that wearing the full veil, which covers the entire face except the eyes, was illegal, local media reported on 15th May.

Illustrative image shows woman with veil on driving a car, undated. Note: Image is a screenshot from video. (NF/newsX)

Under German law drivers' faces must be on show so they can be identified by police and in speed cameras.

But judges ruled that wearing a niqab means police cannot tell who is driving a vehicle and turned down the appeal.

The decision was backed as a common sense verdict on German social media.

One user said: "Safety should always come first. If identification is necessary for driving, then exceptions can't be made."

Another said: "It's about maintaining law and order on the roads."

But one user claimed: "This ruling is a clear violation of religious freedom."

(MJ Leidig/newsX)