Xinjiang province
Legislators in Xinjiang province – a region of China with a large Muslim population, have approved a ban on women wearing a traditional Islamic garment known as a burqa in public.
Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region has approved a regulation banning the wearing of the burqa in the regional capital of Urumqi.
On this backdrop, many Xinjiang experts have warned that the ban on burqa and the heavy-handed enforcement of it may further provoke the region’s minority Uighurs.
What is Xinjiang?
- Xinjiang is an autonomous province of China.
- About 45% of the population of Xinjiang is Muslim.
- Xinjian is home to the Uighur people who speak a Turkic language
- The region has been in news for many years due to violence that the government of China attributes to Islamist militants or separatists.
- The Uighur minority say that the government’s repressive policies and controls on Islam are the reasons for unrest.
