[DAWN] LAST week, officials from Morocco’s interior ministry took to the markets. There they visited some merchants and handed them a letter. "We notice that you sell the burqa," the letter noted, before asking the merchants to get rid of the existing stock within 48 hours and to not sell it in future.The ban on the sale and manufacture does not apply to the headscarf or hijab or even to the niqab, which covers half a woman’s face leaving the eyes exposed. It only applies to the full burqa that covers the entire face and permits vision through a mesh at the front.
The new restrictions were touted as part of Morocco’s fight against religious extremism, noting that while the hijab is common in the country, the full burqa was the import of bad boy religious groups whose activities the Moroccan government was trying to curb.