COLOMBO – Sri Lanka will ban the use of the face that covers the burqa and close more than 1,000 Islamic schools, a government minister said on Saturday, the latest actions affecting the country’s Muslim minority.
Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera said at a news conference that he signed a document on Friday for cabinet approval to ban the entire facial coverage used by some Muslim women for “national security” reasons.
“In our early days, Muslim women and girls never wore burqas,” he said. “It is a sign of religious extremism that has recently emerged. We are definitely going to ban it.”
The use of the burqa in the majority Buddhist nation was temporarily banned in 2019, following the bombing of churches and hotels by Islamic militants who killed more than 250.
Later that year, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, best known for crushing a decades-old insurgency in the north of the country as secretary of defense, was elected president after promising a crackdown on extremism.
Rajapaksa is accused of widespread rights abuses during the war, which he denies.
Minister Weerasekera said the government plans to ban more than 1,000 Islamic schools of madrasah that he said are disrespecting national educational policy.
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“Nobody can open a school and teach what they want to children,” he said.
The government’s actions regarding burqas and schools followed an order last year ordering the cremation of Covid-19 dead – against the religious will of Muslims, who bury their dead. The ban was lifted earlier this year, after criticism from the United States and international human rights groups.