Pastafarian woman wears colander on her head in driving license photo

Shawna Hammond said the colander represents her religious freedom

A woman’s driving license has caught national attention after she was allowed to wear a colander on her head because of her Pastafarian beliefs

A woman’s driving license has caught national attention after she was reportedly allowed to wear a colander on her head because of her Pastafarian beliefs.

Shawna Hammond, a Pastafarian from Oklahoma, said that despite being given a "funny look" when she turned up for her license photo, she was still allowed to wear it for the picture.

Oklahoma law requires people to remove anything that may obscure their face for pictures.

She told KFOR: “It doesn’t cover my face. I mean you can still see my face. We have to take off our glasses, so I took off my glasses.

"For me the colander represents freedom, our freedom of religion, and to whatever religion we prefer or lack of religion.

"It’s hard living as a non-religious person in Oklahoma. It felt good to be recognized that we can all coexist and have those equal rights,” she said.

It comes after Pastafarian Minister Christopher Schaeffer was sworn into the Pomfret New York Town Council with a colander on his head in January.

Mr Schaeffer, a minister for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) took his oath of office before the board's recreational meeting on Thursday afternoon.

According the FSM's website, the church existed in secrecy until 2005 when the publication of a letter, complete with a drawing of the spaghetti monster that had been sent to a school board in Kansas.

The website insists Pastafarianism is a real religion, whose followers believe that pirates were the original Pastafarians and "were peaceful explorers and it was due to Christian misinformation that they have an image of outcast criminals today".

The church's website explains: “By design, the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma."