Morocco Said to Ban Sale of Burqas, Citing Security Concerns
CASABLANCA, Morocco — Morocco has banned the burqa, the full-body veil worn by some conservative Muslim women, according to local media reports.
Although the government did not confirm the ban, the reports said vendors and merchants had been notified
on Monday by representatives of the Interior Ministry that they would
no longer be allowed to sell or manufacture the religious garment
because of security concerns. They said they were given a 48-hour
deadline, but it was unclear when the rule would take effect.
Morocco,
a majority-Muslim country and former French protectorate where the
influence of Western secularist ideals remains, has been trying to
foster more moderate expressions of Islam and subtly warn Islamists not
to go too far, though acts of extremism remain rare.
The
government of King Mohammed VI may have conceived the ban as a gesture
to get that point across. Relatively few Moroccan women wear the burqa,
which is much more common in conservative Muslim societies like
Afghanistan and Pakistan, but many do wear traditional dresses and head
scarves. In any case, by targeting people who sell and produce the
burqas, there is less risk of a public outcry, like the one in France
last summer after the government banned the burkini, a full-body swimsuit favored by some Muslim women.
Le360,
a news site close to the Moroccan Interior Ministry, quoted an
unidentified ministry official who confirmed the ban on the sale of the
garment, which is often blue and covers the head. The official did not
confirm whether the ban would be extended to wearing the burqa.
The
Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. It also has
not yet published an official statement on the specifics of the ban, and
it is unclear what kind of religious full-body veils have been
specifically targeted. Morocco’s official religious authorities have not
taken a position on the issue.
Hammad
Kabbadj, a conservative preacher and member of the Justice and
Development Party who was not allowed to run in last fall’s legislative
elections in which his party prevailed because he was deemed too
“extremist,” denounced the ban on Facebook.
He
said he thought the ban was meant to create tensions that would
ultimately hurt his party, which has been trying unsuccessfully to form a
coalition government since October.
“It is unacceptable,” he wrote. “It’s a perverted behavior by the public authorities.”
The
ban has spurred a fierce debate between Moroccans who see the move as
repressing the religious freedom of women and those who applaud it as a
liberation for women.
“I
am against the culture of banning in principle,” Ali Anouzla, a
Moroccan journalist, said on his Facebook page. “But just to be clear,
the Interior Ministry didn’t ban the hijab or niqab but banned the
burqa, and the burqa isn’t part of Morocco’s culture.”
Stephanie
Willman Bordat, a founding partner at Mobilizing for Rights Associates,
a Morocco-based nongovernmental organization, said many Moroccans saw
the burqa as a neocolonial import from the Gulf states.
“Obviously
the government’s interest is first and foremost security rather than
women’s rights,” she said. “It’s unsurprising given the current security
context and the concern the government has with maintaining security
and stability and cracking down on the terrorists’ networks.”
Farah
Chérif D’Ouezzan, the founder of the Center for Cross Cultural Learning
in Rabat and an expert in comparative religion with a focus on women
and Islam, said that there was a great deal of confusion and that a
confirmed ban would be difficult to implement.
“If
it is true that there is a ban, to me, the ban is justified for
security reasons,” she said. “But at the same time, there is not
evidence for associating the burqa with security threats. I would like
to know how many people they have arrested.”
“I
believe that men or women should have the right to choose how to
dress,” she added. “The number of women who wear the burqa in this
country is still insignificant.”
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