NEW DELHI: An Indian Hindu nationalist group allied with Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on Wednesday for a ban on veils after Sri Lanka prohibited the garments worn by some Muslim women following militant bomb attacks there.
Sri Lanka imposed its ban on Monday to help security forces identify people under an emergency law put in place after Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks in churches and hotels killed more than 250 people.
“We welcome this decision and demand Prime Minister Narendra Modi follows in Sri Lanka’s footsteps and bans the burqa and niqab in India,” the Mumbai-based Shiv Sena party wrote in an editorial in the Saamana newspaper.
A burqa is a loose all-enveloping garment worn by some Muslim women when they go outside. A niqab is a veil that covers the face, apart from the eyes.
The hard-line Hindu group said the burqa had nothing to do with Islam and Indian Muslim women who wore it were only following the tradition of the Arab world, where women wear it outside to protect themselves from the sun.
The Ministry of Home Affairs declined to comment.
Some Muslim leaders said a ban on the burqa would be an attack on civil liberties, and the demand was being made now to whip up controversy as Hindu-majority India votes in a staggered general election.
About 14 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people are Muslim.
Some liberal Muslim women see the burqa and the niqab as part of a culture that suppresses women’s freedom.
Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, who lives in India, said she supported the ban on the burqa, but not because she thought it would stop terrorism.
“People are saying banning the burqa won’t stop terrorism,” Nasreen wrote on Twitter. “I agree, it won’t stop terrorism but it will definitely stop women from being faceless zombies.”
Nasreen had to leave Bangladesh because of hostility from conservatvies in response to her criticism of militant Islam.
Hard-line Indian group allied with Modi calls for ban on the veil
Hard-line Indian group allied with Modi calls for ban on the veil
- The hard-line Hindu group said the burqa had nothing to do with Islam and Indian Muslim women who wore it were only following the tradition of the Arab world
- Some Muslim leaders said a ban on the burqa would be an attack on civil liberties, and the demand was being made now to whip up controversy as Hindu-majority India votes in a staggered general election
Saudi surgeons train Indonesian doctors in maxillofacial, thyroid surgery
- Saudi team is embedded with a general hospital in eastern Indonesian city of Makassar
- During their stay in Indonesia, they performed free maxillofacial, thyroid surgery on 60 patients
JAKARTA: A 19-member surgical team from Saudi Arabia has trained Indonesian doctors in oral, maxillofacial and thyroid surgery under a King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center program to expand access to advanced medical procedures in eastern Indonesia.
The Saudi medics were embedded with their Indonesian colleagues at the Wahidin Sudirohusodo Central General Hospital in Makassar, South Sulawesi province.
“KSrelief’s medical team consisted of surgeons and consultants, so doctors from our hospital had the opportunity to directly observe surgical procedures done by the Saudi doctors that have never been performed here,” Aulia Yamin, spokesperson of the Makassar hospital, told Arab News on Tuesday.
“There were also in-depth discussions on diagnosis and plans for surgery for highly complex cases.”
The KSrelief team was in Indonesia in late December, during which Saudi doctors performed free maxillofacial and thyroid surgery on 60 patients, she added.
The transfer of knowledge by KSrelief also supported Indonesia’s health system transformation plan, which seeks to improve access and quality of services in all regional government hospitals, particularly in eastern Indonesia.
“Makassar is the primary transportation and health referral hub for eastern Indonesia, which means there’s a high number of cases requiring maxillofacial and thyroid surgeries,” Yamin said.
“We hope that this collaboration can continue in the future for other cases, so that more Indonesians can benefit from the program.”
The KSrelief program had also included guest lectures by the Saudi doctors, covering facial and jaw reconstruction as well as updated and new approaches to paranoid gland surgery.
“We’re really thankful to the very hard work that we saw here. The (Indonesian) team was with us day and night and throughout very long surgeries and very complex surgeries,” Prof. Basem T. Jamal, who led the KSrelief team in Makassar, said in a video statement.
“And not only was it supporting the medical effort, but there was always interest in expressing and exchanging knowledge and experiences, and it was really really, a very rich experience for all of us.”
KSrelief has conducted similar programs in other parts of Indonesia, including in Medan, North Sumatra in 2024 that focused on training Indonesian doctors in advanced cardiac procedures on adults and children.
