Boko Haram: ECOWAS Urges W.African Countries to Ban Full-face Veils

ABUJA - ThE leadership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has urged its member countries to ban the wearing of full-face veils by Muslim women as part efforts to limit the amount of Boko Haram female suicide bombings.

ECOWAS President Kadre Desire Ouedraogo told reporters at the close of a two-day summit in Abuja that countries should enforce the ban “in line with their national realities.”

The move would forbid dress that prevents security personnel from being able to identify women.

Boko Haram jihadists have since July been using young women and girls as suicide bombers by hiding explosives in their loose-fitting clothes.

Congo Republic, Senegal and Cameroon have all banned the wearing of full-face veils in public.

According to Osman Mohammed a professor of political science at Kaduna State University in Nigeria who spoke on the issue, the ban may be met with resistance, particularly from conservative Muslim groups, at the same time, the right to exercise one’s religion must go hand in hand with security concerns for the public.

To those who say the ban would infringe on the religious rights of the women wearing them, Mohammed said in the wake of Boko Haram’s deadly violence, national security should outweigh personal religious freedom.

“I believe that the freedom to exercise your religion should be done with total concern about security as well. I think where there is no security, religious practices will not take place as well,” Mohammed said.

Source: Vanguard Newspaper