Lahore, 28th April: Sri Lanka has approved the proposed ban on veils in public.
According to reports, Sri Lankan Cabinet on Wednesday approved the ban on wearing a full-face veil including Muslim burqas in public.
The ban proposed by Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera in a meeting yesterday was approved by the cabinet on the basis of security concerns in the Buddhist-majority nation.
To become a law, the proposal will now be sent to the Attorney General’s Department to get approval by parliament.
However, the proposal will be passed easily as the parliament comprises the majority of the ruling government.
Weerasekara said that the Islamic burqa that covers women from head to toe represents the extremism of a religion.
He added that a ban would help improve national security.
It is pertinent to mention here that wearing a burqa was temporarily banned in 2019 after more than 260 people were killed in Easter Sunday suicide bombings.
Last month, Pakistani Ambassador Saad Khattak had tweeted that the Burqa ban would hurt the feelings of Muslims.
Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special envoy for freedom of religion or belief had also tweeted that the ban would run counter to international law and the right to free religious expression.
It is to be noted that Muslims make up 9% of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population, where Buddhists are more than 70%. The ethnic minority, Tamils, who are predominantly Hindu, make up 15%.
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