YOGYAKARTA: A pair of Indonesian Islamic universities are pushing female students to ditch niqab face veils — with one threatening expulsion for non-compliance — as concerns grow over rising fundamentalism in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation.

Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University said it issued the edict this week to more than three dozen niqab-wearing students, who will be booted from school if they refuse.

Although niqabs are common in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states, they’re rare in secular Indonesia, where around 90 per cent of its 260 million people have traditionally followed a moderate form of Islam.

For many Indonesians, the niqab — a full veil with a small slit for the eyes — is an unwelcome Arab export and some associate it with radical Islam, which the country has wrestled with for years.

“We are a state university... we’ve been told to spread moderate Islam,” the school’s chancellor said.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2018