MOGADISHU: Somali police said on Tuesday they have confiscated hundreds of face veils from women in a major city as they enforced a long-standing ban, with witnesses saying the niqabs were then burnt.

The authorities in the southern state of Jubaland imposed a ban on the niqab — a full-face veil worn by some Muslim women — in the port city of Kismayo in 2021 for security reasons, although officers said the edict was not comprehensively followed.

“The police confiscated hundreds of face veils from women who covered their faces in violation of a standing ban order,” Kismayo police commissioner Colonel Warsame Ahmed said. Officers began the operation in various neighbourhoods across Kismayo from July 31, he said, with instructions to fine and detain women found wearing niqabs.

“This is for security reasons because there are concerns that Al Shaabab may use the face veil to disguise (themselves as) women to carry out attacks,” he said, referring to the fighter group waging a long and bloody insurgency against the fragile central government.

In the deadliest attack in the capital Mogadishu in recent months, 37 people were killed in a suicide bomb and gun assault on a busy beachfront on Friday.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2024