China Bans Burqa In Muslim Area of Xinjiang

A region in China has approved a ban on its residents from wearing burqa in "an effort to curb growing extremism," Chinese state media announced this week.

The legislature of Xinjiang, the most Muslim of regions located in the northwest part of China, gave its nod on the new regulation, which prohibits women from wearing the garment in public places.

"Burqas are not traditional dress for Uygur women, and wearing them in public places is banned in countries such as Belgium and France," Xinhua explained in a brief announcement on the ban.

"The regulation is seen as an effort to curb growing extremism that forced Uygur women to abandon their colorful traditional dress and wear black burqas," it added.

The Uygurs or Uighurs, a group of Muslims who speak Turkic language or Han Chinese migrants, reside in Xinjiang Autonomous Region as well as its capital city, Urumqi.

According to a 2010 census, around 13.4 million of the nearly 22 million residents of the region that borders Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Kazakhstan are Muslims.

For years, Uighurs witnessed a wave of deadly clashes and violence, which the Chinese government described as the works of Islamist militants or separatists.

Some experts warned that the new law outlawing the veil would further stigmatize the Uighur minority.

In August, the northwestern city of Karamay in Xinjiang banned people with head scarves, veils, and long beards from boarding buses.

The ban on head scarves came after Beijing launched a so-called "people's war on terror" in the wake of a market bombing in Urumqi, where 31 people were killed.

Other experts said such violence was the result ethnic tensions boiling over in the region, with some accusing Beijing of systematically violating the Uighurs' right to freedom of worship.

Other human rights groups also claim that the Communist Party's hard-line policies on religion are only serving to further radicalize Muslim youth, who are mostly banned from entering mosques in Xinjiang.