A study is made of the scattering of light and extinction in nematic liquid crystals allowing for the optical anisotropy. An expression is obtained for the intensity of the scattered light and the geometries in which there is no scattering by fluctuations of the director are considered. An analysis is made of the case of a weak optical anisotropy. It is shown that in some cases a relatively weak anisotropy may result in a considerable redistribution of the intensity of the scattered light. Calculations are made of the extinction coefficient and it is shown that the coefficient of an extraordinary ray is several times higher than that of an ordinary ray, and it depends on the angle between the ray and the directo