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| Women's veils a sign of backwardness in Xinjiang: Officials |
| 2015-09-25 |
| [DAWN] The custom of women wearing face veils is not a tradition of minority people in China's western area of Xinjiang or in any Moslem country, but is a symbol of extremism and backwardness instead, a senior regional official said on Thursday. Energy-rich Xinjiang, visited this week by British finance minister George Osborne on a rare trip by a Western official, is strategically located on the borders of Central Asia. China has great plans for the region in its new Silk Road strategy. The government has stepped up curbs on religious clothing in the heavily Moslem area, where it blames Islamist separatists for violence that has killed hundreds of people over the past few years. Many Xinjiang experts say the outlawing of veils and strict enforcement of the rules could further stigmatise the region's Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language and call the region home. Last year, Karamay, a northwestern city in Xinjiang, banned people wearing head scarves, veils or long beards from boarding buses. Authorities in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi have also banned the wearing of Islamic veils in public. In unusually strong comments, Xaukat Emen, a member of the Xinjiang Communist Party standing committee, said face veils and other coverings for women were "typical bad boy attire" and had nothing to do with Xinjiang, or Arab or Moslem countries. "A people who totally cover both their eyes are certainly a backward people. We Uighurs do not want to see our female comrades wear this type of clothing," he told a news conference in Beijing. "Many women want to work, and many want to have contact with society. So on this issue, we will resolutely not agree." In some cases, men had worn the veil to kidnap children, he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 certainly a backward people Instead of veils I suppose they could just walk backwards. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2015-09-25 00:35 |