Burkak illustration. Photo: between
jpnn.com, SRI LANKA – In the name of national security, the Sri Lankan government has banned the use of full face coverings (burkak) and has stopped more than a thousand Islamic schools.
Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera said he had signed a letter for cabinet approval to ban this.
“In our early days, Muslim women and girls never wore burkak. That is a sign of religious extremism that has emerged recently. We will definitely ban it,” she said.
Previously, the wearing of the burkak was temporarily banned in Sri Lanka.
This follows the bombing of churches and hotels by Islamic militants that killed more than 250 people in 2019.
Later that year, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, notorious for crushing a decades-long insurgency in the country’s north as defense minister, was elected president after promising a crackdown on extremism.
Rajapaksa was accused of widespread rights violations during the war, but he denied the allegations.
Weerasekera said the government also plans to ban more than a thousand Islamic schools – madrasas, which he says violate national education policies.
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