COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka will ban the wearing of the burqa and close more than a thousand Islamic schools, a government minister said on Saturday, the latest actions affecting the country’s Muslim minority population.
Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera told a news conference on Friday that he had signed a bill to approve the cabinet to ban the full covering of the face worn by some Muslim women on “national security” grounds.
“In our early days, Muslim women and girls never wore a burqa,” he said. “It is a sign of religious extremism that has emerged recently. We will definitely ban it. “
Wearing the burqa in the majority-Buddhist nation was temporarily banned in 2019, after 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-long insurgency in the north of the country as secretary of defense, was elected president after vowing repression against extremism.
Rajapaksa is accused of widespread abuses of rights during the war, which he denies.
Weerasekera said the government intends to ban more than a thousand madrassa Islamic schools, which it said violate national education policy.
“No one can open a school and teach children what you want,” he said.
The government’s measures on burqa and schools follow an order last year requiring the cremation of COVID-19 victims – against the wishes of Muslims who bury their dead.
This ban was lifted earlier this year, following criticism from the United States and international rights groups.
Reporting by Waruna Karunatilake in Colombo; Written by Alasdair Pal; Mountainous of William Mallard