President seeks to reinforce ban on veil, masks

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| DATE: 2007-10-17 | HNS
MALE, October 17, 2007 (Haveeru News Service) -- President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has asked the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs to prohibit anyone from wearing any clothes which hide their identities while in public.

In a letter dated October 10, the President said that he sought to reinforce the ban on the face-covering veil or abaya and masks following the September 29 bombing of Sultan Park in Male which injured 12 foreign tourists. The decision was taken upon the advise of a Cabinet committee, the President\\\'s Office said.

Though the Government had some years ago prohibited anyone from wearing masks which cover their faces or wear the abaya, some extremists and purists started resorting to the attire after the Government loosened its grip on Maldivian public life following the September 2003 riots.

In recent months, especially after the tsunami of December 2004, some women have been found wearing the abaya in defiance of the earlier prohibition, while men wearing masks recently confronted Police and the Military in North Ari atoll Himandhoo island when police sought to arrest a suspect there connected to the Sultan Park bombing.

In the letter addressed to the Council\\\'s President Sheikh Mohamed Rasheed Ibrahim, and copied to five other government agencies, the President requested authorities to do all that was possible to make the Maldivian people aware of the dangers of extremism and on the virtue of continuing to practice the moderate brand of Islam which had been practiced here for more than 800 years.

If advising extremists to return to the moderate path does not work, the President requested the Council to then resort to legal measures against them.

Last week, the President\\\'s Office also sent letters to the Education Ministry and the Higher Education Ministry requesting them to take measures to counter extremism.

In the letter to Education Minister Zahiya Zareer dated October 8, the President requested her to revise the Islamic curriculum for the Center for Higher Secondary Education, the government-run high school in the capital, where some students were found to practice extremism.

In the letter sent to the Higher Education Ministry dated October 10, the President asked its acting head Abdul Rasheed Hussain to stop the spreading of extremist ideas at the Faculty of Sharia and Law, stop Maldivians from going abroad to study in clandestine institutions, and not to accredit any educational qualifications bestowed by such suspect institutions.

The Islamist Adaalath Party yesterday held a press conference cautioning that not everyone who wears the abaya or grows a beard should be branded as an extremist.

\\\"Abaya is a part of Islam,\\\" insisted Dr. Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari, the chair of the party\\\'s Islamic scholars\\\' council. \\\"What is contested among scholars is whether it is a must or not.\\\"

He pointed out that the Government \\\"allows people to act outside the tenets of Islam\\\", which some believe was a reference to women who do not wear the head scarf.

Majeed, who also works at the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, said that Gayoom seeking to reinforce the ban on the abaya \\\"will only add fuel to the fire.\\\"