COLOMBO: A leading Muslim organisation in Sri Lanka is conducting a campaign to persuade Muslim women to give up black abaya and instead wear coloured ones to make the Islamic sartorial custom more acceptable to the Sinhalese majority in the country.

“Bring your black abayas, we will give you coloured abayas,” says an announcement from the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka. “When everybody is in black, it gives the impression that we are a uniformed force. And the niqab has raised security concerns,” says an advisor to the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama.

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Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2014