Article content continued

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

During cross-examination, Negar Hashemi, the government’s lawyer, asked Ms. Ishaq why she preferred to live in Canada, rather than Pakistan, “a country with Islamic laws that includes your religious views.”

The woman replied she considered Pakistan a Muslim country, but not an Islamic one, because it was “not obeying the laws in, like, whatever Islam has told us to do.”

Males and females, for instance, are not educated in separate classrooms, she said. “They are not following this rule back home … it’s been co-education.”

She added there are “a lot of … fields” in the workplace where there could be a separation of genders, “but there is no separation.”

Asked by Ms. Hashemi whether she would like to see men and women separate during Canada’s citizenship ceremonies, Ms. Ishaq said such a move would “definitely give me something more than I asked” and her main objective was being allowed to keep her face covered while saying the oath.

“But if after that they can do for me some separation, it’s more than — yes, I do appreciate for this, too.”

On Tuesday, she said if the niqab ban were lifted, there would be no need for such an accommodation.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

At one point in the cross-examination, Ms. Ishaq acknowledged she unveiled herself to get her driver’s licence photo and the photo was taken in a public space.

Ms. Hashemi suggested she should do the same to become a Canadian citizen.

“I would suggest to you that it does not take much longer [to say the oath] than the time it took to take your picture,” the government lawyer said.