President Sabbagh proposes repealing the public ban on burqas and hijabs
In what opposition leaders are calling an egregious violation of the Most Serene Republic's constitutionally mandated separation of mosque and state, President Mohammed Sabbagh and his allies in the Majlis al-Nuwwab, the nation's lesser legislative body, have introduced a law that would repeal the twenty one year old ban on donning hijabs, burqas, and other religious clothing on government property such as university campuses and courthouses. This move has elicited robust criticism from congressional leaders Rukha Sunallah, Mustaghfir Al Aouad, and Tibr Mardini among others. In response to prompting by party leaders, student activists closed down almost every major public university, assembling to chant pro-secular slogans and protest the perceived conservatism of President Sabbagh's Islamic Unity government in an unprecedented display of strength.
The president was unperturbed by the blow-back. "We cannot have democracy without religious liberty," he maintained, "We cannot have a Fahrani nation without Islam. It is our culture, our heritage, our light in the dark of the world. A government that persecutes believers, who constitute the majority, for the sake of a philosophical abstraction is injudicious and illegitimate, most especially when such tyrannical policies represent a cultural imposition by the West." With Sabbagh's ally, Prime Minister Fouzan Ali al-Quwwas, leading the Majlis al-Nuwwab, the bill appears likely to pass it's initial legislative test without amendment, though experts have warned that the Majlis al-Shuyukh, long dominated by liberal and nationalist parties, may present a steeper challenge.
Public reactions tor the ban's repeal have been mixed, with the urban middle-class, students, and intellectuals opposed whereas the rural poor and clerics have come out staunchly in support of Sabbagh, as one might expect given the role they played in his election last year. The coming weeks could see a stormier political climate in a country long notorious for its political turbulence.
