Sri Lanka bans face covering after attacks
Women wearing niqab to veil their faces take part in a demonstration on August 1, 2018, the first day of the implementation of the Danish face veil ban, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sri Lanka has banned face covering after terror attacks killed 253 people. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Ban effected a week after Islamist militants carried out suicide bombings that killed 253 people.
It came days after local Islamic clerics urged Muslim women not to cover their faces amid fears of a backlash.
Muslims in the majority Buddhist nation account for about 10 percent of its 21 million population.
COLOMBO,
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday announced a ban on face covering, a week after Islamist militants carried out coordinated suicide bombings that killed 253 people.
Sirisena said he was using emergency powers to ban any form of face covering in public.
The restriction will take effect from Monday, his office said in a statement.
"The ban is to ensure national security... No one should obscure their faces to make identification difficult," the statement said.
It came days after local Islamic clerics urged Muslim women not to cover their faces amid fears of a backlash after the bombings carried out by jihadists affiliated to the Islamic State group.
Muslims in the majority Buddhist nation account for about 10 percent of its 21 million population.
Most Sri Lankan Muslims practise a liberal form of the religion and only a small number of women wear the niqab.
