KASHGAR (China): A Chinese government worker in the ancient Silk Road oasis of Kashgar beckons two women to her street side stand and logs their details under the gaze of a surveillance camera. Their offence: wearing veils.

The “Project Beauty” campaign aims to discourage women from covering their faces -- a religious practice for Muslim Uighurs, the largest ethnic group in China’s Xinjiang region -- in an attempt to improve security.

But critics warn the effort could sow resentment and backfire instead. “We need to hold onto our traditions and they should understand that,” said a 25-year-old woman who has been registered twice.

Offenders were made to watch a film about the joys of exposing their faces, she added, speaking behind a white crocheted covering.

“The movie doesn’t change a lot of people’s minds,” she said, like others declining to be named.

Xinjiang, a vast area bordering Pakistan and Central Asia in China’s far west, beyond the furthest reaches of the Great Wall, has followed Islam for centuries.

It came under Chinese control most recently during the Qing dynasty in the late 1800s. Kashgar residents say veil restrictions sparked at least one deadly conflict this year near the city, where 90 per cent of the area’s 3.3 million residents are Uighur.

“For the Chinese government the causal process is: the Islamic extremists ask for independence, ask for separatism, then that’s why they set very strict limits on Uighurs’ religious activities,” said Shan Wei, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.

“For the Uighurs’ part, it’s: ‘OK, I wasn’t involved in any political movement, I’m not a separatist at all, but you set so many stupid restrictions on my daily religious activities that I hate you’,” he added, pointing out that China’s other Muslim minorities did not face such rules.

Unveiling resentment: Women in Kashgar sport a range of coverings, from bright scarves draped stylishly over hairdos that leave their necks exposed, to sombre Saudi-style black fabric cloaking all but their eyes.

Policies to stop them covering their faces, and to a lesser extent their hair, are not publicised. City authorities declined to comment and Xinjiang officials could not be reached.

But “Project Beauty” stands could be seen around the city, and a tailor said campaign staff had instructed him not to make the full-length robes often worn with face coverings. Other residents said that to enter government offices, banks or courts, women had to remove their veils and men shave their beards.

In Hotan, another predominantly Uighur city 500 kilometres to the east, at least one hospital received government forms to report back on veiled patients. A Xinjiang government web portal featuring Project Beauty did not mention banning veils, but listed its goals as promoting local beauty products and other goods, and encouraging women to be “practitioners of modern culture”.—AFP