Malaysia Seeking to Limit Use of Face Veil

The Malaysian government has told its Muslim women employees that they no longer can come to work wearing the traditional face veil.

Khalil Yaakob, an official in the prime minister’s department, said the reason is to foster closer rapport between the public and government employees.

“It would be difficult for anyone to identify another person if he or she covered the face,” Khalil told reporters. “Anyone can cover the face and . . . claim to be someone else.”

Universities also have begun to ban the veil.

About half of Malaysia’s 14 million people are Malays, and almost all the Malays are Muslims. About half the Malays are women.

But officials maintain that while the covering up of women is traditional for Muslims in the Middle East, the Islamic religion does not require it, and they find it unsuitable to Malaysia, a former British colony where the other half of the population is mostly Chinese, Indian and non-Muslim.

Although no exact statistics are available, small groups of women in some areas have taken to covering themselves from head to toe in a black ensemble, with a veil covering the face except for the eyes. Sociologists attribute this to what they call a new growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Malaysia.

The government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed, which is dominated by Muslim Malays, has shown displeasure with the trend.

A notice signed by Ahmad Sarji, deputy director general of the Public Service Department, has been circulated to the 500,000 government employees, many of whom are Malay Muslim women.

While the notice mentioned attire that covers the face, it also banned other work-time attire such as jeans and shorts. Senior male officers were advised to wear a lounge suit--a bush jacket, shirt and tie. Male employees of lesser rank were told that trousers and shirts are acceptable.

Disciplinary Action

Rafidah Aziz, a Muslim who is minister of public enterprises and president of the women’s wing of Mahathir’s United Malays National Organization, said disciplinary action would be taken against women who persist in wearing the veil on the job. She did not specify what the action would be.

She also said Muslim women students should leave their universities or other places of learning if they persist in wearing the veil to class.

The vice chancellor of the National University in Kuala Lumpur, Abdul Hamid Abdul Rahman, said that a dress code drawn up by the university senate prohibits covering the face and that action would be taken against students who do.

The Science University has sent out circulars advising students not to wear such attire.

Tunku Abdul Rahman, a former prime minister and current president of the Muslim Welfare Organization, maintained that the wearing of the veil is an Arab tradition and not a practice for all Muslims.

The mufti of Kuala Lumpur, Sheik Mohsein Salleh, agreed with that assessment and added that the veil is not suitable for Malaysia.

“The dress is not important. It is the feeling toward God that is important,” he said.