A court in France has ruled that its citizens cannot smile in their passport pictures after rejecting a civil servant’s plea regarding the same. The man, whose identity is undisclosed, reportedly wanted to bring about a change in France’s reputation of being in a condition of perpetual “national depression”.
The petitioner “claimed that he was not, in fact, smiling but had a neutral face with the corners of his mouth turned up”, according to The Guardian. He says that if French citizens are permitted to smile in their passport pictures, they would not only feel happy but also send out a positive message to the world.
“If they stopped asking the French to be miserable on their IDs, they'd give the morale of the nation a little lift,” a representative of the man told The Guardian.
