Chinese city in restive Muslim region bans burqa in public

The new ban in Urumqi was first reported on ts.cn, a Xinjiang government-run website, and later widely published by other state media outlets.

The ordinance name suggests it targets outer garments covering someone’s full body including the face, which is called a burqa in some Islamic traditions.

A spate of recent violent incidents has rocked Xinjiang, a resource-rich region long inhabited by the Turkic-speaking, largely Muslim Uyghurs.

On Monday, a court in Urumqi convicted more than a dozen suspects with Uyghur-sounding names for their roles in two separate violent attacks in the city earlier this year.

Eight people were sentenced to death, while five others received suspended death sentences.

READ: Tensions in China’s Xinjiang

CNN