Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Morocco: Bans the sale and manufacturing of the Burka

(Rabat) Out of nowhere, Morocco yesterday (09/01/2017) banned the Burka from being sold for security reasons with a Government official relating to the media:

 '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,'
  Traders have been issued notices to stop making and selling burqas and to liquidate their stock within 48 hours. When asked if the wearing of the Burka is to be banned, the official remained silent.


However whilst the Burka is associated as an Afghanistan import, quite a few people in the country are angry at this so called clamp down on free expression:

 Banning a part of your culture, your history, to try to imitate others yet more, it’s truly pathetic.


Responding to suggestions that the burqa is an “Afghan import”, however, the Moroccan religious activist  Hassan al-Katani criticized what he called the “racist differentiation” of “letting women wear clothes of the latest European fashion but banning them from wearing Eastern styles”. Al-Katani condemned the new law in several posts on his official Facebook page.

Hammad Kabbadj whose candidacy for legislative election was rejected by the Ministry of the Interior because his views were deemed too extremist, finds it “unfair” to prohibit the integral veil while the “western” bikini is considered an unalienable right. “It is unacceptable to forbid citizens from wearing the oriental niqab, or to interfere in its marketing,”