Sri Lanka’s public security minister announced a startling decision regarding the ban on the burqa and shut down of Islamic schools.
While the nation’s predominant religion in Sri Lanka is Buddhism, it is also home to around 2 million Muslims too. Therefore, the decision sparked great outrage around the country.
By definition, a burqa is a term reserved for the Muslim cultural garment that covers up the whole body as well as face, away from the eyes. Moreover, it is very different from the hijab that is another piece of clothing that is usually worn by Muslim women. It only covers the person’s head.
Speaking about women in the Sri Lankan nation wearing the burqa, Sarath Weerasekera mentioned how the country would soon end up banning it.
In the same way, the Independent quoted him on March 13th as mentioning how in the good old days, Muslim women never wore the burqa. Moreover, he termed the burqa as a sign of great religious extremism that only came about recently. “We are definitely going to ban it,” he added.
When it came to the subject of Islamic schools, he spoke about the real reason why the country would soon be shutting them down. And that related to how the teachers failed to teach the country’s national curriculum.
He mentioned, “Nobody can open up a school and teach whatever they feel like to the children.”
The shocking announcement of today comes right after the burqas received a temporary ban in the Sri Lankan nation for the year 2019. This was right after a massive string of terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic extremists rocked the nation. Moreover, around 250 people died as a result of the attacks that took place in several hotels as well as churches.
Sri Lanka will now be joining the list of 19 other nations that have implemented measures in permanently banning this certain piece of clothing.
Since the year 2018, countries like France, Austria, Germany, as well as the Netherlands all banned the burqa while Switzerland just voted in favor of the ban’s implementation last week.