RABAT: Morocco’s ban on the sale and production of full-face veils (burqa) has sharply divided opinions in the North African country.
Writers and intellectuals have condemned the burqa ban.
“No authority in the world has the right to impose a dress code on a woman or a man for their everyday life,” wrote columnist Abdellah Tourabi, in a view widely shared on social media in Morocco.
Is the burqa foreign to Moroccan culture? he asked.
Sure, but “slim jeans were not the apparel of the sultans and our grandmothers were not crazy about Victoria’s Secret bras,” Tourabi said.
“The burqa is not an item of clothing just like any other... it’s an instrument of oppression, a horrific negation of women, an insult to half of humanity,” according to award-winning French-Moroccan novelist Leila Slimani.
Slimani, in an opinion piece on news website Le360, said the burqa ban signaled that Morocco was moving “toward greater equality between the sexes.”
Another vocal supporter, Nouzha Skalli, a lawmaker and former family and social development minister, said the ban constituted “an important step in the battle against religious extremism.”
On the web, a social media commentator suggested the Interior Ministry go further by banning makeup “as it used more to cover up women’s faces.”
Outspoken preacher Abu Naim condemned “the Satan-worshippers” and “atheists serving the interests of the Jews” behind the burqa ban.
And yet, Morocco “considers the wearing of the Western swimsuit on the beaches an untouchable right,” was the bitter comment of another preacher, Hammad Kabbaj.
Oussama Boutaher, coordinator of a committee which defends Islamist detainees, said the ban was outright “discriminatory” and would turn devout Muslims into “second-class citizens.”
While there has been no official announcement, media reports said the ministry order banning the burqa would take effect this week.
“We have taken the step of completely banning the import, manufacture and marketing of this garment in all the cities and towns of the kingdom,” Le360 quoted a high-ranking ministry official as saying.
Ministry officials on Monday started carrying out “awareness-raising campaigns with traders to inform them of this new decision,” said another website, Media 24.
Le360 said the measure appeared to be motivated by security concerns, “since bandits have repeatedly used this garment to perpetrate their crimes.”
Burqa ban splits Morocco society
Burqa ban splits Morocco society
Kurds in Turkiye protest over Syria Aleppo offensive
- Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul
- In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament
DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: Protesters rallied for a second day in Turkiye’s main cities on Thursday to demand an end to a deadly Syrian army offensive against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, an AFP correspondent said.
Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkiye’s main Kurdish-majority city, while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul that was roughly broken up by riot police who arrested around 25 people, the pro-Kurdish DEM party said.
In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament, denouncing the targeting of Kurds in Aleppo as a crime against humanity.
The protesters demanded an end to the operation by Syrian government forces against the Kurdish-led SDF force in Aleppo, where at least 21 people have been killed in three days of violent clashes.
It was the worst violence in the northwestern city since Syria’s Islamist authorities took power a year ago. The fighting erupted as both sides struggled to implement a March agreement to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions into the new Syrian state.
In Istanbul, hundreds of protesters waving flags braved heavy rain near Galata Tower to denounce the Aleppo operation under the watchful eye of hundreds of riot police, an AFP correspondent said.
But some of the slogans drew a sharp warning from the police, who moved to roughly break up the gathering and arrested some 25 people, DEM’s Istanbul branch said.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the police attack on the Rojava solidarity action in Sishane. This brutal intervention, oppression, and violence against our young comrades is unacceptable!” the party wrote on X, demanding the immediate release of those arrested.
At the Diyarbakir protest during the afternoon, protesters carried a huge portrait of the jailed PKK militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, an AFP video journalist reported.
“We urge states to act as they did for the Palestinian people, for our Kurdish brothers who are suffering oppression and hardship,” Zeki Alacabey, 64, told AFP in Diyarbakir.
Although Turkiye has embarked on a peace process with the PKK, it remains hostile to the SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, seeing it as an extension of the banned militant group and a major threat along its southern border.
It has repeatedly demanded that the SDF merge into the main Syrian military. A defense ministry official said on Thursday that Ankara was ready to “support” Syria’s operation against the Kurdish fighters if needed.
Demonstrators had already taken to the streets in several major Turkish cities with Kurdish majorities on Wednesday, including Diyarbakir and Van, according to images broadcast by the DEM.
