China city bans beards, veils in buses

Beijing, Aug 7: In a shocking development, a city in China's restive Xinjiang region has banned beards for Muslim men and burka or veils worn by Muslim women.

Authorities in Karamay banned "five groups of people" — those who wear burka, headscarves, veils or hijab, any clothing bearing the crescent moon and star, as well as long beards, state-controlled media reported on Wednesday. All of these symbols are associated with Muslim community.

The ban disallows people in this group from using facilities like buses and other means of public transport and has been effective since Monday. This is in view of a local sports competition on August 20, the newspaper said, and may be extended beyond that.

Even more controversially, state leaders in Xinjiang are working on a proposal to amend existing rules on family planning, which allows Muslims to have more than two children. So far, Muslims are exempt from the country's one-child policy, which has now been relaxed to allow up to two children.

Southern Xinjiang will "implement family planning policy equally on all ethnic groups, to lower and stabilize an appropriate birth rate", a Communist Party leader, Zhang Chunxian, wrote in the August edition of Qiushi, an official magazine of the Communist party. More than 45% of Xinjiang's 22 million people are Uighur Muslims who speak Turkic language.

Chinese authorities have earlier discouraged Muslim government employees from fasting during the holy month of Ramadan on the grounds that it can affect their health and performance.