COLOMBO/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan ambassador in Colombo and a United Nations expert have expressed concerns over Sri Lanka’s proposed move to ban the wearing of burqas.
Sri Lanka announced plans over the weekend to ban the wearing of burqas and also said it would close more than 1,000 Islamic schools known as madrassas, citing national security.
Pakistan’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Saad Khattak, tweeted the ban would “only serve as injury to the feelings of ordinary Sri Lankan Muslims and Muslims across the globe.”
https://t.co/BjrnFSoesO
The likely ban on Niqab #SriLanka will only serve as injury to the feelings of ordinary Sri Lankan Muslims and Muslims across the globe. At today’s economically difficult time due to Pandemic and other image related challenges faced by the country— Ambassador Saad Khattak (@SaadKhtk) March 15, 2021
The United Nations’ special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Ahmed Shaheed, tweeted that the “burqa bans are incompatible with [international] law guarantees of the right to manifest one’s religion or belief & of freedom of expression.”
Burka bans are incompatible with int’l law guarantees of the right to manifest one’s religion or belief & of freedom of expression!
Sri Lanka to ban burkas, shut Islamic schools for ‘national security’ https://t.co/w0dhgtMUc8
— Ahmed Shaheed (@ahmedshaheed) March 13, 2021
BURQA BAN JUST A ‘PROPOSAL’:
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka said on Tuesday a call to ban the wearing of the burqa was “merely a proposal”.
The Sri Lanka foreign ministry said a decision had not yet been taken on what it described as “merely a proposal… under discussion”.
“The government will initiate a broader dialogue with all parties concerned and sufficient time will be taken for necessary consultations to be held and for consensus to be reached,” it said in a statement.
Earlier on Saturday, Sri Lanka’s minister of public security, Sarath Weerasekara, called the burqa a sign of religious extremism and said it has a direct impact on national security.
Weerasekara signed a paper on Friday seeking Cabinet approval to ban burqas.
The wearing of burqas in Sri Lanka was temporarily banned in 2019 soon after the Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and hotels that killed more than 260 people in the Indian Ocean island nation.
Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Daesh group, or Daesh, have been blamed for the attacks at six locations — two Roman Catholic churches, one Protestant church, and three top hotels.
Sri Lanka also plans to ban more than 1,000 religious seminaries, saying they are not registered with the authorities and do not follow the national education policy.
The decision to ban burqas and seminaries is the latest move affecting Sri Lanka’s minority Muslims.
Muslims make up about 9 per cent of the 22 million people in Sri Lanka, where Buddhists account for more than 70 per cent of the population. Ethnic minority Tamils, who are mainly Hindus, comprise about 15 per cent of the population.
