title: Hijab by country

text: In 2010, a ban on face covering, targeting especially women wearing chador and burqa, was adopted by the French Parliament. According to the Guardian, the "Burqa ban", was challenged and taken to the European Court of Human Rights which upheld the law on 1 July 2014, accepting the argument of the French government that the law was based on "a certain idea of living together". In 2013 "the applicant" stood outside Elysée Palace in niqab and subsequently received a criminal conviction. The French criminal courts noted in 2014 that the lower court was wrong to dismiss her rights covered under article 18 but dismissed her appeal. The French delegation argued that wearing face coverings violated the principle of "living together". Judges Angelika Nussberger and Helena Jäderblom dissented, calling the concept, "far-fetched and vague". Going on to note that the very decision of declaring what a woman is allowed to wear was hypocritical and antithetical to the aim of protecting human rights. The committee came to the determination in 2018 that the case had been incorrectly dismissed after review by a single judge on the grounds that, "the conditions of admissibility laid down in articles 34 and 35 of the Convention [had] not been met." Upon review the committee concluded that the applicants' human rights had been violated under article 18 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The committee dismissed the notion of "living together" as a vague notion not protected under international law.


title: Hijab by country

text: A broader ban on hijab is regularly proposed by conservative and right-wing politicians. Such a broader ban would include a ban in public universities. However, presidents of universities and most student unions oppose such a ban.


title: Hijab by country

text: In May 2021, Emmanuel Macron's party La République En Marche barred a Muslim woman from running as one of its local election candidates because she wore a hijab for a photograph on a campaign flier.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2017, a ban on face-covering clothing for soldiers and state workers during work was approved by German parliament.


title: Hijab by country

text: Due to rapid demographic changes in Germany following immigration from Muslim countries, public debates ensued which among other topics concerned Islamic veils from the turn of the century onward.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2019, Susanne Schröter, an academic at Goethe University Frankfurt planned a conference titled "The Islamic veil – Symbol of dignity or oppression?" which led to a group of students protesting that value judgments on the veil should not be made. The protestors criticized the invitation of journalist Alice Schwarzer and publisher of feminist magazine EMMA. Schröter is a noted critic of Islamic veils and argues that the veil restricts a woman's freedom and usually comes with a bundle of restrictions. Schröter was backed by the president of Frankfurt University who stressed that it is her job to organize academic conferences where diverse opinions can be voiced. The president of the argued that freedom of speech meant that controversial topics should be resolved by debate, not "boycotts, mobbing or violence". Members of the "Uni gegen antimuslimischen Rassismus" (English: "University against anti-Muslim racism") boycotted the conference due to their objections regarding the invited participants.


title: Hijab by country

text: The Alternative for Germany are the largest party in Germany that advocates a ban on the burqa and niqab in public places.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2018, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar ruled out a burka ban in Ireland, saying "I don't like it but I think people are entitled to wear what they want to wear. […] I believe in the freedom of religion. I don't agree with the doctrine of every religion or necessarily any religion, but I do believe in the freedom of religion."


title: Hijab by country

text: Since 2009, the hijab has been banned in public schools and universities or government buildings. In 2014, the first female parliamentarian with hijab was elected to the Kosovo parliament.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2016, "The Independent" reported that a legal ban of face-covering Islamic clothing was adopted by the Latvian parliament. After long public discussions, draft legislation was approved by Latvian government on 22 August 2017; however, it was never adopted by the parliament as a law.


title: Hijab by country

text: Malta has no restrictions on Islamic dressing such as the veil (hijab) nor the full face veil (burqa or niqab), however an official ban on face covering for religious reasons is ambiguous. However it is guaranteed that individuals are allowed to wear as they wish at their private homes and at the Mosque. Imam El Sadi, from Mariam Al-Batool Mosque, has said that the banning of the niqab and the burka "offends Muslim women". El Sadi said that the Maltese's "attitude towards Muslim women" is positive and despite cultural clashes their dressing is tolerated. Some Muslim women share the belief that it is sinful to be seen in public without veiling themselves, however they are lawfully required to remove it when needed—such as for photos on identifications.


title: Hijab by country

text: The States General of the Netherlands enacted a ban on face-covering clothing, popularly described as the "burqa ban", in January 2012. The burqa ban came into force on 1 August 2019 in schools, public transport, healthcare, and government buildings, but there are doubts over whether it will be applied in practice. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema spoke out in her opposition of the law. She stated that removing someone wearing a burqa from public transport in the capital would not be fitting with current Dutch society. Chairman of the Dutch Public Transport Association Pedro Peters also voiced his opinion on the ban. Peters said: "You are not going to stop the bus for half an hour for someone wearing a burqa", waiting for the police to arrive; "we are also not allowed to refuse anyone because we have a transport obligation". Known officially as the Partial Ban on Face-Covering Clothing Act, the act also details that those who refuse to uncover their faces may pay a fine of at least €150 ($146 or £132 ) and can be arrested. Dutch police have also stated that enforcing the ban is not a priority, and that they likely would not respond to a complaint within a thirty-minute timeframe.


title: Hijab by country

text: The Dutch government has also come under fire for the "burqa ban" from certain members of the UN claiming it is discriminatory toward Muslim women. On 7 October 2019, Tendayi Achiume, the UN Special Rapporteur on racism, wrote a report questioning the perceived inclusivity of Dutch society and how that perception masks a reality of treating racial and ethnic minorities as foreign. Speaking about the "burqa ban" Achiume said "The political debate surrounding the adoption of this law makes plain its intended targeting of Muslim women, and even if this targeting was not the intent, it has certainly been the effect". In her report, Achiume also references a whistleblower in the Hague police department. She said that this whistleblower raised concerns about a culture of racism and targeted discrimination within the police department, and the government must act quickly to combat it.


title: Hijab by country

text: In April 2019, the Telia telecom company received bomb threats after featuring a Muslim woman taking off her hijab in a commercial. Although the police did not evaluate the threat as likely to be carried out, delivering threats is still a crime in Norway.


title: Hijab by country

text: Russia's Stavropol region has a ban on hijabs in schools since 2012. the first of its kind imposed by a region in the Russian Federation. The ruling was upheld by Russia's Supreme Court in July 2013. Hijab is prevalent in North Caucasus republics such as Chechnya and Dagestan and less prevalent in Tatarstan.


title: Hijab by country

text: In December 2019, the municipality of Skurup banned Islamic veils in educational institutions. Earlier, the municipality of Staffanstorp approved a similar ban.


title: Hijab by country

text: In a referendum on 7 March 2021, Swiss voters approved a nationwide ban on the burqa, with over 51 percent of the electorate supporting it.


title: Hijab by country

text: Earlier, in September 2013, a constitutional referendum in the Canton of Ticino on a popular initiative banning full-face veils was approved with 66.2 percent of the vote. In May 2017, the Landsgemeinde in the Canton of Glarus rejected adopting a similar measure with about two-thirds of the vote.


title: Hijab by country

text: In September 2018, the Canton of St Gallen become the second canton in Switzerland to vote in favor of a ban on facial coverings in public with two-thirds casting a ballot in favor.


title: Hijab by country

text: The UK has no specific legislation prohibiting any form of traditional Islamic dress. In some cases, hijabs are worn by young girls from age 6–8. According to retail chain Marks & Spencer, the hijabs they sell as part of the school uniform will fit a child aged 3.


title: Hijab by country

text: When Albania became independent in 1920, it was declared to be secular country, and veiling were regarded as not only a symbol of religious power but also as a symbol of the gender segregation and isolation of women from society which constituted a wasted societal resource. A ban was introduced in 1929, but not enshrined in law until 1937.


title: Hijab by country

text: King Zogu I initiated a number of reforms in women's rights as a part of his modernization policy, which were enforced via the local branches of a national women's organization, and one of these reforms were a ban on veiling which was introduced in 1937. The veil ban in Albanian was not aggressively enforced, since this was not seen as effective, but through persuasion, campaigns by the women's organization, and by the king's sisters, who acted as role models by appearing unveiled. Unveiling was finnally fully accomplished during the Communist era.


title: Hijab by country

text: During the Algerian War of 1954-1962, it came to be seen as legitimate for Algerian women to break seclusion and participate unveiled in society, when women participated actively in the struggle for national independence.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2018, the government passed a law banning the wearing of full face-veils, called burqas or niqabs, for female public servants while at work. The prime minister at the time, Ahmed Ouyahia, pushed the ban because of his belief that women should be identifiable in the workspace.


title: Hijab by country

text: In the 1920s, Queen Soraya Tarzi famously removed her veil in public as a part of her support for women's liberation, followed by other elite women, but the radical reform program was met with the deposition of king Amanullah Khan in 1929, and his successor reinstated the veil and gender seclusion and caused a backlash in women's rights.


title: Hijab by country

text: Following the election of Mohammed Daoud Khan as Prime Minister in 1953, social reforms giving women a more public presence were encouraged. One of his aims was to break free from the ultra-conservative, Islamist tradition of treating women as second-class citizens. During his time, he made significant advances towards modernization. In 1959, women employed by the state, such as radio announcers, were asked to come to their work places without the veil, instead wearing a loose coat, scarf and cloves; after that, the foreign wives, and daughters of foreign born wives, were asked to venture out on the streets in the same way, and in this way, women without the veil were started to be seen in the streets of Kabul. In August 1959, on the second day of the festival of Jeshyn, Queen Humaira Begum and Princess Bilqis appeared in the royal box at the military parade unveiled, alongside the Prime Minister's wife, Zamina Begum. A group of Islamic clerics sent a letter of protest to the Prime minister to protest and demand that the words of sharia be respected. The Prime minister answered by inviting them to the capital and present proof to him that the holy scripture indeed demanded the chadri. When the clerics could not find such a passage, the Prime Minister declared that the female members of the Royal Family would no longer wear veils because the Islamic law did not demand it. While the chadri was never banned, the example of the Queen and the Prime Minister's wife was followed by the wives and daughters of government officials as well as by other urban women of the upper class and middle class, with Kubra Noorzai and Masuma Esmati-Wardak known as the first commoner pioneers.


title: Hijab by country

text: In the mid-20th century, many women in urban areas did not wear headcoverings, but this ended with the outbreak of civil war in the 1990s. The Afghan "chadri" is a regional style of burqa with a mesh covering the eyes. The burqa became a symbol of the conservative and totalitarian Taliban rule, who strictly enforced female adults to wear the dress. Even after the 2001 defeat of the Taliban and the following Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, some women continued to wear it out of security concerns. People opposed to the burqa claim it is not Islamic, nor part of Afghan culture.


title: Hijab by country

text: After the Fall of Kabul, an interviewed Taliban spokesperson rejected the idea that "women should not wear headscarves for education", saying it was not part of their culture. In September 2021, the Taliban mandated that women attending private Afghan universities must wear a niqab. On 7 May 2022, the Taliban made a law requiring all women to wear a burqa or niqab, despite that the law never really enforced and most Afghan women choose to ignore it.


title: Hijab by country

text: Veil as a part of woman's wardrobe was the trait of all cities where trade was developing. The anti-veil movement was initially started in 1908 in Baku by liberal bourgeoisie well before the Soviet Hujum in 1927. However, the anti-veil protests were suppressed by Islamic clergy, causing a major setback. While some women stopped wearing the veil then, many still wore the veil out of social pressure. A prominent Azeri women's organization based in Baku, the Ali Bayramov Club, successfully participated in the campaign to encourage women to take off the veil.


title: Hijab by country

text: With Azerbaijan's secular tradition, there has reportedly been a general perception in the country linking the hijab with extremism. Many covered women have reported experiencing job discrimination.


title: Hijab by country

text: The traditional garments of women in Bahrain include the "jellabiya", a long, loose dress, which is one of the preferred clothing styles for the home. Bahraini women may practice the "muhtashima", partially covering the hair, or the "muhajiba", fully covering the hair.


title: Hijab by country

text: The purdah for muslim upper- and middle-class women in India and later Pakistan and Bangladesh, both in the form of gender segregation as well as the veil, fell out of fashion due to women's active mobilisation in the anticolonial struggle for independence.


title: Hijab by country

text: The anti colonial independence movement in the Muslim world was dominated by secular modernists, who considered women's liberation as a natural part of achieving a modernizeed and revitalized Muslim world, and by the 1930s muslim upper-class women had started to appear unveiled.


title: Hijab by country

text: Veiling were historically not common in Bangladesh. Middle- and upper class women dressed in modern clothing and working class women in traditional Indian garb. In the 1980s, veils were reportedly a rare sight in Dhaka. Veiling were seen by the middle class as a sign of low class and low education.


title: Hijab by country

text: From the 1990s onward gradually become more common in Bangladesh along the rise of political Islam and Islamic revivalism in society, and in the early 21st-century veiling started to become common.


title: Hijab by country

text: In a 2010 the Bangladesh High Court, in a legal dispute between a local official and the director of a school, ruled that the veil was "a personal choice of women" and that the Ministry of Education should ensure that women employed in public institutions should ensure that women were not forced to wear a veil or hijab against their will.


title: Hijab by country

text: By 2022, the attitude around veiling had changed and veiling had became common in Bangladesh, and some women experienced pressure by their families to weil. A study by Manusher Jonno Foundation and DNET found that 44% of people think women who wear veils or hijabs are “good girls,” and 63% think that women who wear “western clothing” are “bad girls” who are shredding the fabric of society.


title: Hijab by country

text: The hijab became more unpopular with educated women, including devout Muslims, in the early 20th century as the British authorities discouraged it and as women sought to gain modern positions of power. After returning from the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Congress in Rome in 1923, the feminist Huda Sha'arawi she removed her veil and mantle, a signal event in the history of Egyptian feminism. Women who came to greet her were shocked at first then broke into applause and some of them removed their veils and mantles. Within a decade of Huda's act of defiance, all Egyptian women stopped wearing veils and mantles for many decades until a retrograde movement occurred. Her decision to remove her veil and mantle was part of a greater movement of women, and was influenced by French born Egyptian feminist named Eugénie Le Brun, but it contrasted with some feminist thinkers like Malak Hifni Nasif.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 1953, Egyptian leader President Gamal Abdel Nasser was told by the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood that they wanted to enforce the wearing of the hijab, to which Nasser responded: "Sir, I know you have a daughter in college—and she doesn't wear a headscarf or anything! Why don't you make her wear the headscarf? So you can't make one girl, your own daughter, wear it, and yet you want me to go and make ten million women wear it?".


title: Hijab by country

text: The veil gradually disappeared in the following decades, so much so that by 1958 an article by the United Press (UP) stated that "the veil is unknown here." However, the veil has been having a resurgence since the Iranian Revolution, concomitant with the global revival of Muslim piety. According to "The New York Times", , about 90 percent of Egyptian women currently wear a headscarf. Women chose to adopt the veil in the post-1970s period, with some contradicting relatives who were against the hijab.


title: Hijab by country

text: Small numbers of women wear the "niqab". The secular government does not encourage women to wear it, fearing it will present an Islamic extremist political opposition. In the country, it is negatively associated with Salafist political activism. There has been some restrictions on wearing the "hijab" by the government, which views "hijab" as a political symbol. In 2002, two presenters were excluded from a state run TV station for deciding to wear "hijab" on national television. The American University in Cairo, Cairo University and Helwan University attempted to forbid entry to "niqab" wearers in 2004 and 2007.


title: Hijab by country

text: Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, Grand Imam of al-Azhar, issued a "fatwa" in October 2009 arguing that veiling of the face is not required under Islam. He had reportedly asked a student to take off her "niqab" when he spotted her in a classroom, and he told her that the "niqab" is a cultural tradition without Islamic importance. Government bans on wearing the "niqab" on college campuses at the University of Cairo and during university exams in 2009 were overturned later. Minister Hany Mahfouz Helal met protests by some human rights and Islamist groups.


title: Hijab by country

text: Many Egyptians in the elite are opposed to "hijab", believing it harms secularism. By 2012 some businesses had established bans on veils, and Egyptian elites supported these bans.


title: Hijab by country

text: In Indonesia, the term "jilbab" is used without exception to refer to the "hijab". Under Indonesian national and regional law, outside Aceh, female headcovering is entirely optional and not obligatory.


title: Hijab by country

text: Some women may choose to wear a headscarf to be more "formal" or "religious", such as the "jilbab" or "kerudung" (a native tailored veil with a small, stiff visor). Such formal or cultural Muslim events may include official governmental events, funerals, circumcision ("sunatan") ceremonies or weddings. However, wearing Islamic attire to Christian relatives' funerals and weddings and entering the church is quite uncommon.


title: Hijab by country

text: Culturally to the Javanese majority, plain, Saudi-style "hijab", the "niqab" or socially worse yet the indigenous peasant "kerudung" (known in North Sumatran languages as "tudung") is considered vulgar, low-class and a faux pas – the traditional Javanese "hijab" are transparent, sheer, intricately brocaded or embroidered fine silk or lace tailored to match either their "sarung" or kebaya blouse.


title: Hijab by country

text: Young girls may also elect to wear the "hijab" publicly to avoid unwanted low-class male attention and sexual harassment and thus display their respectability as "good Muslim girls": that is, they are not "easy" conquests. Additionally, Islamic private school uniform code dictate that female students must wear the "jilbab" (commonly white or blue-grey, Indonesia's national secondary school colors), in addition to long-sleeved blouse and ankle-length skirt. Islamic schools "must" by law provide access to Christians (and vice versa Catholic and Protestant schools allow Muslim students) and it is to be worn by Christian students who attend Muslim school, and its use by Muslim students is not objected to in Christian schools.


title: Hijab by country

text: In May 2021, a government decree was issued banning schools from enforcing the "jilbab" as part of their uniform, after reports of discrimination against girls who removed them surfaced. In July 2021, Indonesia's Supreme Court reversed a government regulation issued earlier that had allowed girls under 18 in state schools to not wear a mandatory "jilbab."


title: Hijab by country

text: Many nuns refer to their habit as a "jilbab", perhaps out of the colloquial use of the term to refer to any religious headcovering.


title: Hijab by country

text: The sole exception where "jilbab" is mandatory is in Aceh Province for Muslim women, under Islamic sharia-based Law No. 18/2001, granting Aceh special autonomy, and through its regional regulation Qanun No. 11/2002. Unique among Indonesian regional governments, Aceh was allowed to implement sharia law by the Indonesian national government as part of the peace settlement with the Free Aceh Movement. This Acehnese "hukum syariah" and the reputedly overbearing "morality police" who enforce its (Aceh-only) mandatory public wearing are the subject of fierce debate, especially with regard to its validity vis-a-vis the Constitution among Acehnese male and female Muslim academics, Acehnese male and female Muslim politicians and female rights advocates.


title: Hijab by country

text: Until 2015, except in Aceh, female police officers are not allowed to wear "hijab". Since 25 March 2015, female police officers can now wear "hijab" if they want. Flight attendants are not required to wear "hijab" except during flights to Aceh province.


title: Hijab by country

text: Compounding the friction and often anger toward "baju Arab" (Arab clothes), is the ongoing physical and emotional abuse of Indonesian women in Saudi Arabia, as guest workers, commonly maids or as Hajja pilgrims and Saudi Wahhabi intolerance for non-Saudi dress code has given rise to mass protests and fierce Indonesian debate up to the highest levels of government about boycotting Saudi Arabia—especially the profitable all Hajj pilgrimage—as many high-status women have been physically assaulted by Saudi morality police for nonconforming headwear or even applying lip balm, leading some to comment on the post-pan Arabist repressiveness of certain Arab nations due to excessively rigid, narrow, and erroneous interpretation of Sharia law.


title: Hijab by country

text: In Iran, since 1981, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the hijab has become compulsory. All women are required to wear loose-fitting clothing and a headscarf in public.


title: Hijab by country

text: During the Middle Ages, Turkic nomadic tribes from Central Asia arrived, whose women did not wear headscarves. However, after the Safavid centralization in the 16th century, the headscarf became defined as the standard head dress for many religious women in urban areas all around the Iranian Empire. Exceptions to this were seen only in the villages and among nomadic tribes, such as Qashqai. Covering the whole face was rare among the Iranians and was mostly restricted to local Arabs and local Afghans. Later, during the economic crisis in the late 19th century under the Qajar dynasty, the poorest religious urban women could not afford headscarves.


title: Hijab by country

text: On 8 January 1936, Reza Shah issued a decree, Kashf-e hijab, banning all veils. The ban was left in place for a period of five years, from 1936 to 1941.


title: Hijab by country

text: Official measures were relaxed in 1941 under Reza Shah's successor, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the wearing of a headscarf or chador was no longer an offence, but was still considered an indicator of backwardness or of membership of the lower class. In the 1970s, the chador was usually a patterned or of a lighter color such as white or beige; black chadors were typically reserved for mourning and only became more acceptable everyday wear starting in the mid-1970s—however in the period before the Iranian Revolution the black chador's usage outside of the city of Qom was associated with allegiance with political Islam and was stigmatized by areas of Iranian society. Discrimination against women wearing the headscarf or chador occurred, with public institutions discouraging their use, and some eating establishments refusing to admit women who wore them.


title: Hijab by country

text: In the aftermath of the revolution, hijab was made compulsory in stages. In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini announced that women should observe Islamic dress code. Almost immediately after, starting from 8 March 1979 (International Women's Day), thousands of women began protesting against mandatory Hijab. The protests lasted six days, until 14 March. The demonstrations were met by government assurances that the statement was only a recommendation. Hijab was subsequently made mandatory in government and public offices in 1980, and in 1983 it became mandatory for all women (including non-Muslims and non-citizens). According to one source, rules on wearing hijab are "tantamount" to the Islamic Republic's "raison d'etat". Two slogans of the 1979 revolution were: "Wear a veil, or we will punch your head" and "Death to the unveiled". Under Book 5, article 638, women in Iran who do not wear a hijab may be imprisoned from 10 days to two months, and/or required to pay fines from 50,000 up to 500,000 rials adjusted for inflation.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 1983, the Islamic Consultative Assembly decided that women who do not cover their hair in public will be punished with 74 lashes. Since 1995, unveiled women can also be imprisoned for up to 60 days.


title: Hijab by country

text: In May 2017, My Stealthy Freedom, an Iranian online movement advocating for women's freedom of choice, created the White Wednesday movement: a campaign that invites men and women to wear white veils, scarves, or bracelets to show their opposition to the mandatory forced veiling code. The movement was geared toward women who proudly wear their veils, but reject the idea that all women in Iran should be subject to forced veiling. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born journalist and activist based in the UK and the US, created the movement to protest Iran's mandatory hijab rule. She described her 2017 movement via Facebook, saying, "This campaign is addressed to women who willingly wear the veil, but who remain opposed to the idea of imposing it on others. Many veiled women in Iran also find the compulsory imposition of the veil to be an insult. By taking videos of themselves wearing white, these women can also show their disagreement with compulsion." The campaign resulted in Iranian women posting pictures and videos of themselves wearing pieces of white clothing to social media.


title: Hijab by country

text: On 27 December 2017, 31-year-old Vida Movahed, also known as "The Girl of Enghelab Street" was arrested for being unveiled in public after a video of the woman went viral on social media. The video showed Movahed silently waving her hijab, a white headscarf that she had removed from her head and placed on a stick for one hour on Enqelab Street, Tehran. At first it was assumed that her act was connected to the widespread protests taking place in Iran, but Movahed confirmed that she performed the act in support of the 2017 White Wednesday campaign. Vida's arrest sparked outrage from social media, where many Iranians shared footage of her protest along with the hashtag "#Where_Is_She?". On 28 January 2018, Nasrin Sotoudeh, a renowned human rights lawyer, posted on Facebook that Vida had been released. It was not until a few weeks later that Sotoudeh revealed the girl's identity. In the following weeks, multiple people re-enacted Vida's public display of removing their hijabs and waving them in the air. On 1 February 2018, the Iranian police released a statement saying that they had arrested 29 people, mostly women, for removing their headscarves, contrary to Iranian law. One woman, Shima Babaei, was arrested after removing her headdress in front of a court as a symbol of her continued dedication to the cause.


title: Hijab by country

text: On 23 February 2018, Iranian Police released an official statement saying that any women found protesting Iran's compulsory veiling code would be charged with "inciting corruption and prostitution," which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Before this change, according to article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran, "Anyone in public places and roads who openly commits a "harām" (sinful) act, in addition to the punishment provided for the act, shall be sentenced to two months imprisonment or up to 74 lashes; and if they commit an act that is not punishable but violates public prudency, they shall only be sentenced ten days to two months' imprisonment or up to 74 lashes. Note- Women who appear in public places and roads without wearing an Islamic "hijab", shall be sentenced ten days to two months' imprisonment or a fine of five hundred to fifty thousand rials."


title: Hijab by country

text: Following the announcement, multiple women reported being subjected to physical abuse by police following their arrests. Some have since been sentenced to multiple years in prison for their acts of defiance. In one video, a woman stands on top of a tall box, unveiled, waving her white scarf at passers by. The video then shows a man in a police uniform tackling the woman to the ground. Shortly after the video went viral, the Ministry of Interior (Iran) scolded police for using physical force against the woman. Salman Samani, a spokesman for Ministry released a statement on 25 February 2018 saying "No one has a license to act against the law even in the role of an officer dealing with crimes."


title: Hijab by country

text: On 8 March 2018, a video of three Iranian women singing a feminist fight song in Tehran's subway went viral on. The women were singing in honor of International Women's Day and to highlight women's continued challenges caused by forced veiling and other discriminatory laws against women. In the video, in which three bare-headed Iranian women sing "I am a Woman", calls upon women to join efforts to fight injustice and create "another world" of "equality". The women hold hands, display pictures of a previous women's rights protest, and ask the other women on the subway train to clap in honor of "having lived and fought all their lives against all kinds of discrimination, violence, humiliation, and insults." At the end of the video, one of the protestors is heard saying "Happy Women's Day to all of you."


title: Hijab by country

text: That same day, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, made a speech during a gathering of religious poets in Tehran, posting a series of tweets in response to the series of peaceful hijab protests. Khamenei defended the dress code, praising Islam for keeping women "modest" and in their "defined roles" such as educators and mothers. He also lashed out at the Western world for, in his view, leading its own women astray. "The features of today's Iranian woman include modesty, chastity, eminence, protecting herself from abuse by men," Khamenei tweeted. He claimed that the most sought after characteristic of a Western woman involve is her ability to physically attract men.


title: Hijab by country

text: Also outside of Iran, Melika Balali, an Iranian-Scottish wrestler, became the British champion in June 2022, she protested in the match against compulsory hijab by rising a sign which wrote on it "Stop forcing hijab, I have the right to be a wrestler".


title: Hijab by country

text: The Iranian protests against compulsory hijab continued into the September 2022 Iranian protests which was triggered in response to the killing of Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly beaten to death by police due to wearing an "improper hijab".


title: Hijab by country

text: The Iraqi sociologist Ali Al-Wardi mentioned that women in Iraq were not used to wearing the hijab, as the Hijab wasn't common before the 1930s, and the hijab was only widespread among the wives of Ottoman employees and clerics during the Ottoman period.


title: Hijab by country

text: In the 1920s, when the Iraqi women's movement begun under the Women's Awakening Club, the opposing conservatives accused it of wanting to unveil women.


title: Hijab by country

text: Majda al-Haidari, wife of Raouf al-Chadirchi, has sometimes been said to be the first woman in Baghdad to have appeared unveiled in the 1930s, but the Communist Amina al-Rahal, sister of Husain al-Rahal, have also been named as the first unveiled role model in Baghdad. In the 1930s and 1940s, female College students gradually started to appear unveiled, and most upper- and middle class urban women in Iraq were said to be unveiled by 1963.


title: Hijab by country

text: In Ba'athist Iraq (1968-2003), the Secular Socialist Baath Party women were officially stated to be equal to men, and urban women were normally unveiled.


title: Hijab by country

text: After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, there was a surge in threats and harassment of unveiled women, and the use of hijab became common in Iraq. In 2017, the Iraqi army imposed a burqa ban in the liberated areas of Mosul for the month of Ramadan. Police stated that the temporary ban was for security measures, so that ISIS bombers could not disguise themselves as women.


title: Hijab by country

text: Iraq in general does not have laws pertaining to headscarves however it is advised to wear hijab in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.


title: Hijab by country

text: In Gaza, school officials have rejected a hijab policy for women. They have also targeted those who seek to impose the hijab.


title: Hijab by country

text: In July 2010, some Israeli lawmakers and women's rights activists proposed a bill to the Knesset banning face-covering veils. According to the "Jerusalem Post", the measure is generally "regarded as highly unlikely to become law." Chana Kehat, founder of the Jewish women's rights group Kolech, criticized a ban and also commented "Fashion also often oppresses women with norms which lead to anorexia." Eilat Maoz, general coordinator for the Coalition of Women for Peace, referred to a ban as "a joke" that would constitute "racism". In Israel, orthodox Jews dress modestly by keeping most of their skin covered. Married women cover their hair, most commonly in the form of a scarf, also in the form of hats, snoods, berets, or, sometimes, wigs.


title: Hijab by country

text: Successful informal coercion of women by sectors of society to wear Islamic dress or "hijab" has been reported in the Gaza Strip where Mujama' al-Islami, the predecessor of Hamas, reportedly used a mixture of consent and coercion to "'restore' "hijab"" on urban-educated women in Gaza in the late 1970s and 1980s. Similar behavior was displayed by Hamas during the First Intifada. Hamas campaigned for the wearing of the "hijab" alongside other measures, including insisting that women stay at home, they should be segregated from men, and for the promotion of polygamy. During the course of this campaign women who chose not to wear the "hijab" were verbally and physically harassed, with the result that the "hijab" was being worn "just to avoid problems on the streets".


title: Hijab by country

text: Following the takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, Hamas has attempted to implement Islamic law in the Gaza Strip, mainly at schools, institutions and courts by imposing the Islamic dress or "hijab" on women.


title: Hijab by country

text: Some of the Islamization efforts met resistance. When Palestinian Supreme Court Justice Abdel Raouf Al-Halabi ordered women lawyers to wear headscarves and caftans in court, attorneys contacted satellite television stations including Al-Arabiya to protest, causing Hamas's Justice Ministry to cancel the directive.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2007, the Islamic group Swords of Truth threatened to behead female TV broadcasters if they did not wear the "hijab". "We will cut throats, and from vein to vein, if needed to protect the spirit and moral of this nation," their statement said. The group also accused the women broadcasters of being "without any [...] shame or morals". Personal threats against female broadcasters were also sent to the women's mobile phones, though it was not clear if these threats were from the same group. Gazan anchorwomen interviewed by Associated Press said that they were frightened by the Swords of Truth statement.


title: Hijab by country

text: In February 2011, Hamas banned the styling of women's hair, continuing its policy of enforcing Sharia upon women's clothing.


title: Hijab by country

text: Hamas has imposed analogous restrictions on men as well as women. For example, men are no longer allowed to be shirtless in public.


title: Hijab by country

text: There are no laws requiring the wearing of headscarves nor any banning such from any public institution.


title: Hijab by country

text: In the 1950s, the Queen of Jordan appeared unveiled in public for the first time, and after this, it became acceptable for educated urban women to appear unveiled.


title: Hijab by country

text: The use of the headscarf increased during the 1980s. However, the use of the headscarf is generally prevalent among the lower and middle classes, sometimes the high class. Most (85%) of women above 18 wear Hijab in Jordan. Veils covering the face as well as the "chador" are extremely rare. It is widely believed that the "hijab" is increasingly becoming a fashion and religious statement altogether, in Jordan with some Jordanian women wearing stylish headscarves along with modern-style clothing.


title: Hijab by country

text: The word "hijab" was used only for certain style of "hijab", and such style of hijab was not commonly worn by Muslims there until the fall of the Soviet Union. Some Islamic adherents (like Uzbeks) used to wear the paranja, while others (Chechens, Kara-Chai, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Turkmens, etc.) wore traditional scarves the same way as a bandanna and have own traditional styles of headgear which are not called by the word "hijab".


title: Hijab by country

text: In the 1920s during the Soviet era, a series of policies and actions taken by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, initiated by Joseph Stalin, to remove all manifestations of gender inequality, especially on the systems of female veiling and seclusion practiced in Central Asia.


title: Hijab by country

text: In September 2017, schools in some regions of Kazakhstan banned girls wearing headscarves from further attendance. Attempts by Muslim parents to challenge the ban had failed . In February 2018, the government proposed a ban on people wearing "niqabs" and similar forms of female dress in public.


title: Hijab by country

text: During the liberal Arab nationalist era in the 1950s, women's liberation and unveiling were seen by Kuwaiti liberals as a natural part of the progress of a new independent nation; feminists like Fatima Hussain burned their veils and in the 1960s and 1970s, unveiled women were the norm. This development turned around due to a growing Islamization in Kuwaiti life, which were to make veiling the norm again in the 1990s.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 1978, the Government of Kuwait announced official Islamization policies and laws. Islamist women were very influential during this period, especially in public, as burqa adoption was a very visible symbol of the Islamist movement. In 1981, Bayader As-Salam, a religious group focusing on cultural awareness, formed. The same year Sheikha Latifa Al-Sabah, then-wife of Emir Saad Al-Salim Al-Sabah, established the Islamic Care Association, seeking to spread Islam along with the associated lifestyle and conduct of Muslim life.


title: Hijab by country

text: Along with fellow MP (member of parliament) Rola Dashti, Aseel al-Awadhi chose not to wear a hijab when she took her seat in the National Assembly in 2008. This decision was criticized by Islamist MPs, including prominent Islamic Salafi Alliance member Ali al-Omair. The Constitutional Court rejected a case which claimed that refusal to wear a hijab was a violation of Kuwaiti law.


title: Hijab by country

text: Some schools reportedly banned Muslim students from attending classes in 2011 and 2012 over their headscarf. A school in Kara-Suu officially banned wearing the "hijab" for classes in 2015.


title: Hijab by country

text: There is no law requiring the veiling of women in Lebanon, and women are free to dress as they wish. Many women choose not to veil.


title: Hijab by country

text: An important event in the growing trend of unveiling among upper-class women in Lebanon and Syria in the 1920s was the publication of "al-Sufur wa-l-hijab" by Nazira Zeineddine in 1928, which did not consider veiling necessary.


title: Hijab by country

text: Central to the revolution of 1969 was the empowerment of women and removal of inferior status. In the 1970s, female emancipation was in large measure a matter of age. One observer generalized that city women under the age of thirty-five had discarded the traditional veil and were quite likely to wear Western-style clothing. Those between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five were increasingly ready to consider such a change, but women over the age of forty-five appeared reluctant to give up the protection which they perceived their veils and customary dress to afford. A decade later, veiling was uncommon among urban women of the 1980s. This changed in the 2000s, when the veiling of women gradually started become the norm again.


title: Hijab by country

text: The headscarf is known as a , which simply means "cover". (The word is used with that meaning in other contexts, e.g. , a dish cover for food.) Muslim women may freely choose whether or not to wear the headscarf. The exception is when visiting a mosque, where the must be worn; this requirement also includes non-Muslims.


title: Hijab by country

text: Although headscarves are permitted in government institutions, public servants are prohibited from wearing the full-facial veil or "niqab". A judgment from the then-Supreme Court of Malaysia in 1994 cites that the "niqab", or "purdah", "has nothing to do with (a woman's) constitutional right to profess and practise her Muslim religion", because Islam does not make it obligatory to cover the face.


title: Hijab by country

text: Although wearing the hijab, or tudung, is not mandatory for women in Malaysia, some government buildings enforce within their premises a dress code which bans women, Muslim and non-Muslim, from entering while wearing "revealing clothes".


title: Hijab by country

text: , the vast majority of Muslim Malaysian (mostly ethnic Malay) women wear the tudung, a type of hijab. This use of the tudung was uncommon prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and the places that had women in tudung tended to be rural areas. The usage of the tudung sharply increased after the 1970s, as religious conservatism among Malay people in both Malaysia and Singapore increased.


title: Hijab by country

text: Several members of the Kelantan ulama in the 1960s believed the hijab was not mandatory. By 2015, the Malaysian ulama believed this previous 'fatwa' was un-Islamic.


title: Hijab by country

text: Malaysian activist Maryam Lee reportedly received vitriolic backlash and death threats in 2020 for criticizing what she saw as institutional patriarchy in Islam and speaking out about her decision to not wear the hijab. Malaysian authorities questioned her for possibly breaching a law against insulting the religion.


title: Hijab by country

text: The Maldives became Muslim in the 12th-century but women did not veil, and as late as in 1337, the Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta expressed his dislike of the fact that the Muslim women of the Maldives did not veil.


title: Hijab by country

text: There are no official laws in the Constitution of the Maldives that require women to cover their heads, but Maldivian women commonly wear a hijab and niqab in public. There are reports of women being pressured into covering themselves by close relatives; conversely, the US Department of State's annual "International Religious Freedom Report" in 2007 referenced one instance in which a female student was restricted from attending school for wearing a headscarf, despite civil servants wearing them at work without issue.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 1947, Princess Lalla Aicha of Morocco started to appear in public unveiled with the support of her father the King, who wished to send a signal that he supported the emancipation of women.


title: Hijab by country

text: In Morocco, the headscarf is neither enforced by law nor forbidden by law, and women are free to choose if they wish to wear one. The headscarf is more frequent in the northern regions, small to medium cities and rural regions. As it is not totally widespread, wearing a hijab is considered rather a religious decision. In 2005, a schoolbook for basic religious education was heavily criticized for picturing female children with headscarves, and later the picture of the little girl with the Islamic headscarf was removed from the school books. The headscarf is strongly and implicitly forbidden in Morocco's military and the police.


title: Hijab by country

text: Muslim Turkish-Cypriot women wore traditional Islamic headscarves. When leaving their homes, Muslim Cypriot women would cover their faces by pulling a corner of the headscarf across their nose and mouth, a custom recorded as early as 1769.


title: Hijab by country

text: In accordance with the islands' strict moral code, Turkish Cypriot women also wore long skirts or pantaloons in order to cover the soles of their feet. Most men covered their heads with either a headscarf (similar to a wrapped "keffiyeh", "a form of turban") or a fez. Turbans have been worn by Cypriot men since ancient times and were recorded by Herodotus, during the Persian rule of the island, to demonstrate their "oriental" customs compared to Greeks.


title: Hijab by country

text: Following the globalization of the island, however, many younger Sunni Muslim Turkish-Cypriots abandoned wearing traditional dress, such as headscarves. Yet they are still worn by older Muslim Cypriot women.


title: Hijab by country

text: Until the removal of ban on headscarf in universities in Turkey in 2008, women from Turkey moved to study in Northern Cyprus since many universities there did not apply any ban on headscarf. Whilst many Turkish Cypriot women no longer wear headscarves, recent immigrants from Turkey, settled in villages in Northern Cyprus, do.


title: Hijab by country

text: The rules of modesty in Islamic culture require a woman to be modestly covered at all times, especially when traveling farther from the home. At home, the Omani woman wears a long dress to her knees along with ankle-length pants and a leeso, or scarf, covering her hair and neck. Multitudes of lively colored "Jalabiyyas "are also worn at home. Once outside the home, dress is varied according to regional tastes. For some of a more conservative religious background, the burqa is expected to be worn to cover her face in the presence of other males, along with the wiqaya, or head scarf, and the abaya, an all-enveloping cloak revealing only her hands and feet. Many women from varying regions of the Sultanate wear the scarf to cover only their hair.


title: Hijab by country

text: The cotton burqa is symbolic of the expectations of the ideal woman and act as a mark of respect to represent her modesty and honor as well as her status. The burqa, first worn by a young girl after her seven-day honeymoon, is on whenever she is in the presence of strangers or outside the home, covering most of her face from view. The highest and lowest classes of Omanis do not wear the burqa—the highest being the children and relatives of the Sultan and the lowest being the poorest women in the town. This makes the burqa a symbol of rank as well. Some burqa differ in regions and designs as well, varying in size, shape and color. The Quran, however, makes no references specific to the modern day burqa.


title: Hijab by country

text: The "abaya "is the conservative dress of choice, favored by women of most social classes and regions. The multitudes of designs and decadent embellishments on the modern day "abaya "has allowed it to become a versatile clothing that can be made either plain or a fashion statement, in Oman and in other neighboring Islamic countries.


title: Hijab by country

text: In Pakistan, hijab is not mandated by law. Most women wear a dupatta as a headscarf and niqab and burqas are more common in the northwest, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.


title: Hijab by country

text: The purdah for muslim upper- and middle-class women in India and later Pakistan, both in the form of gender segregation as well as the veil, fell out of fashion due to women's active mobilisation in the anticolonial struggle for independence. The anti colonial independence movement in the Muslim world was dominated by secular modernists, who considered women's liberation as a natural part of achieving a modernizeed and revitalized Muslim world, and by the 1930s muslim upper-class women had started to appear unveiled.


title: Hijab by country

text: During the Islamization policy of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1977–1988, women were encouraged to veil, and although no law of general compulsory veiling was introduced, women who appeared on state Television as well as women employed by the Federal Government were forced to veil. These regulations were repealed after the fall of Zia-ul-Haq.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2019, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mandated a law requiring hijab for female students, however it was reversed after much backlash.


title: Hijab by country

text: Women and men are expected to dress in a manner that is modest, but the dress code is generally driven by social customs and is more relaxed in comparison to other nations in the region. Qatari women generally wear customary dresses that include "long black robes" and black head cover "hijab", locally called "bo'shiya". However, the more traditional Sunni Muslim clothing for women are the black colored body covering known as the abayah together with the black scarf used for covering their heads known as the shayla. The Abaya and Shayla is expected to be worn by Qatari women. Women who do not comply may face harsh consequences by their families or spouses.


title: Hijab by country

text: It is believed that Qatari women began using face masks in the 19th century amid substantial immigration. As they had no practical ways of concealing their faces from foreigners, they began wearing the same type of face mask as their Persian counterparts.


title: Hijab by country

text: Since 2018, the hijab or any other form of headcovering is not required in Saudi Arabia legally. At one time, Saudi Arabian dress code used to require all women, local and foreign, to wear an abaya, a garment that only covers the body and arms in public. According to some popular Salafi scholars, a woman is to cover her entire body, including her face and hands, in front of unrelated men. Hence, the vast majority of traditional Saudi women are expected on a social standing to cover their body and hair in public historically, while in recent decade covering has become more relaxed.


title: Hijab by country

text: The Saudi niqāb usually leaves a long open slot for the eyes; the slot is held together by a string or narrow strip of cloth.


title: Hijab by country

text: In the country, although the hijab is not compulsory, it is expected to be worn in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.


title: Hijab by country

text: According to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, women are not required to cover their heads or wear the abaya, provided their clothing is "decent and respectful."


title: Hijab by country

text: Under the Socialist Siad Barre regime (1969-1991), women were free to dress as they wished, and most urban women did not wear hijab; however, after the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991, most women in Mogadishu started to wear hijab for the first time, and those who did not were harassed.


title: Hijab by country

text: During regular, day-to-day activities, Somali women usually wear the , a long stretch of cloth tied over the shoulder and draped around the waist. In more formal settings such as weddings or religious celebrations like Eid, women wear the , which is a long, light, diaphanous voile dress made of cotton or polyester that is worn over a full-length half-slip and a brassiere. Married women tend to sport head-scarves referred to as "shash", and also often cover their upper body with a shawl known as . Unmarried or young women, however, wear hijab, and the is also commonly worn.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 1983, the sharia law was enacted in Sudan, and in from 1989, women were forced to wear a hijab whenever they left their home.


title: Hijab by country

text: Since 2019 the hijab is no longer mandatory and there no longer is a modesty law as Sudan has become a secular state. Muslims without hijabs are common but Sudan still culturally follows very conservative values. While the hijab was not explicitly mandated by law, Sudanese women were required to dress modestly in public. Due to Sudan's vaguely worded Public Order law, there were no delineated parameters of what constitutes immodest dress. The law stated: "Whoever does in a public place an indecent act or an act contrary to public morals or wears an obscene outfit or contrary to public morals or causing an annoyance to public feelings shall be punished with flogging which may not exceed forty lashes or with fine or with both". In 2013, the case of Amira Osman Hamid came to international attention when she chose to expose her hair in public, in opposition to the nation's public-order laws.


title: Hijab by country

text: During a famous demonstration by women against the French Colonial regime in Syria in 1922, the women protesting removed their veils in public. During the 1920s, upper-class women in Syria started to appear unveiled in public, which caused great opposition from religious conservaties, who sometimes attacked unveiled women with acid. An important event in the growing trend of unveiling among upper-class women in Lebanon and Syria in the 1920s was the publication of "al-Sufur wa-l-hijab" by Nazira Zeineddine in 1928, which did not consider veiling to be Islamically necessary.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2010, Ghiyath Barakat, Syria's minister of higher education, announced a ban on women wearing full-face veils at universities. The official stated that the face veils ran counter to secular and academic principles of Syria. However, the ban strictly addresses veils that cover the head and mouth, and does not include hijabs, or headscarfs, which most Syrian women wear.


title: Hijab by country

text: The word "hijab" was used only for certain style of "hijab", and such style of hijab was not commonly worn by Muslims there until the fall of the Soviet Union. Some Islamic adherents (like Uzbeks) used to wear the paranja, while others (Chechens, Kara-Chai, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Turkmens, etc.) wore traditional scarves the same way as a bandanna and have own traditional styles of headgear which are not called by the word "hijab".


title: Hijab by country

text: In the 1920s during the Soviet era, a series of policies and actions taken by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, initiated by Joseph Stalin, to remove all manifestations of gender inequality, especially on the systems of female veiling and seclusion practiced in Central Asia.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2017, the government of Tajikistan passed a law requiring people to "stick to traditional national clothes and culture", which has been widely seen as an attempt to prevent women from wearing Islamic clothing, in particular the style of headscarf wrapped under the chin, in contrast to the traditional Tajik headscarf tied behind the head. Tajik authorities have reportedly enforced this with warnings, fines, sacking from employment, or refusal of services in hospitals and schools.


title: Hijab by country

text: During the struggle for national independence, Habib Bourguiba favored the traditional Tunisian hijab, the "sefsari", because it was seen as a symbol of preservation of the Tunisian cultural identity against the French culture colonialism; after independence however, President Habib Bourguiba promoted modernity and gender equality through the National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT), and rejected the veil as a symbol of backwardness.


title: Hijab by country

text: In a public ceremony in 1956, the President, surrounded by women political associates, gently and ceremonially removed the veil from the head of a woman in a symbolic gesture of rejection of its use.


title: Hijab by country

text: By the 1980s, the only Tunisian urban women wearing the veil were reportedly women members of the Islamic Tendency Movement (MTI).


title: Hijab by country

text: In 1981, women with headscarves were banned from schools and government buildings, and since then those who insist on wearing them face losing their jobs. In 2006, the authorities launched a campaign against the "hijab", banning it in some public places, where police would stop women on the streets and ask them to remove it, and warn them not to wear it again. The government described the headscarf as a sectarian form of dress which came uninvited to the country.


title: Hijab by country

text: , after the Tunisian revolution took place, the headscarf ban was lifted; however, in contemporary urban Tunisian society it is still not fully accepted. On 6 July 2019 the government banned the wearing of the niqab in public institutions citing security reasons.


title: Hijab by country

text: Mustafa Kemal, had ambition to make Turkey a new modern Secular nation. In 1925, he removed Islam from the constitution and introduced a new Family Law modelled after the Swiss Family Law, and in the same year, he banned the traditional hat for men, the fez.


title: Hijab by country

text: Mustafa Kemal viewed modern clothing as an essential visual symbol of the new Secular nation and encouraged both women and men to wear modern fashion, but in contrast to his law against traditional wear for men, he never introduced a ban against the hijab.


title: Hijab by country

text: However, he appeared in public with his wife Latife Uşaki unveiled, and arranged formal state receptions with dinner and dance where men and women could mingle, to encourage women to leave seclusion and adopt modern clothing, and in the mid-1920s, upper- and middle class Turkish women started to appear unveiled in public.


title: Hijab by country

text: Turkey is officially a secular state, and the "hijab" was banned in universities and public buildings from 1981 until late 2013; this included libraries or government buildings. The ban was first in place during the 1980 military coup, but the law was strengthened in 1997. There has been some unofficial relaxation of the ban under governments led by the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) in recent years: for example, the current government of the AKP is willing to lift the ban in universities. However, the new law was upheld by the constitutional court.


title: Hijab by country

text: Some researchers claim that about 55 to 60 percent of Turkish women cover their heads. A number of women wear a headscarf for cultural reasons; that cultural headscarf is used by women that work under the sun to protect their heads from sunburn. In cities like Istanbul and Ankara about a half of women cover their heads. In the cities in eastern Turkey, more women cover their heads.


title: Hijab by country

text: On 7 February 2008, the Turkish Parliament passed an amendment to the constitution, allowing women to wear the headscarf in Turkish universities, arguing that many women would not seek an education if they could not wear the "hijab". The decision was met with powerful opposition and protests from secularists. On 5 June 2008, the Constitutional Court of Turkey reinstated the ban on constitutional grounds relating to the secularity of the state. Headscarves had become a focal point of the conflict between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the secularist establishment. The ruling was widely seen as a victory for Turks who claim this maintains Turkey's separation of state and religion. In 2013, the headscarf ban in public institutions was lifted through a decree, even though the ban officially stands through court decisions. The ban on wearing hijab in high schools ended in 2014.


title: Hijab by country

text: In March 2017, the Ministry of Defence in Ankara announced a change in rules to allow women in the armed forces to wear headscarves with their uniforms, which sparked concerns from secularists over creeping Islamisation of the military.


title: Hijab by country

text: In October 2022, Turkey's government and opposition both pledged legal steps to establish women's right to wear Islamic headscarves, bringing an issue that previously caused severe splits back to the forefront of political discourse ahead of following year's elections.The recommendations came as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's governing AK Party and the opposition pushed policy ideas ahead of 2023 Turkish presidential election, with an eye on opinion surveys that show the outcome is still in doubt.


title: Hijab by country

text: Uzbek authorities in 2012 reportedly prohibited the selling of religious clothing, specifically hijabs and face veil, at several Tashkent markets following a secretive ban on their sales. An Uzbek imam was sacked in 2018 after he urged President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to lift a ban on personal religious symbols including hijabs.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 1956 the Adeni Women's Club engaged in favor of unveiling on the initiative of Radhia Ihsan, when six unveiled women, followed by about thirty unveiled women by car, attended a procession through the streets of Aden to the office of the news papers "al-Ayyam" and "Fatat al-jazira", were they issued a press statement condemning the veil as a hindrance against the participation of women in public society. After the foundation of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1967, the General Union of Yemeni Women supported unveiling and women's rights in all spheres, though the policies they introduced in South Yemen was reversed after the Yemeni Unification in the 1990s.


title: Hijab by country

text: Although there is no dress code that legally forces veiling upon women in Yemen, the abaya and niqab are social norms in Yemen and are worn by girls from a young age. In some areas, the hijab is part of school uniforms. Yemeni women who choose to not wear headscarves are at risk of oppression.


title: Hijab by country

text: When Nobel Peace Laureate Tawakkol Karman was asked by journalists about her "hijab" with regard to her intellect and education, she replied, "man in early times was almost naked, and as his intellect evolved he started wearing clothes. What I am today and what I'm wearing represents the highest level of thought and civilization that man has achieved, and is not regressive. It's the removal of clothes again that is regressive back to ancient times."


title: Hijab by country

text: On 12 July 2015, two women dressed in religious garments blew themselves up in Fotokol, killing 13 people. Following the attacks, since 16 July, Cameroon banned the wearing of full-face veils, including the "burqa", in the Far North region. Governor Midjiyawa Bakari of the mainly Muslim region said the measure was to prevent further attacks.


title: Hijab by country

text: Following a double suicide bombing on 15 June 2015 which killed 33 people in N'Djamena, the Chadian government announced on 17 June 2015 the banning of the wearing of the "burqa" in its territory for security reasons. The 2015 prime minister, Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet, called the burqa "camouflage." Women who violate this ban are subject to jail time.


title: Hijab by country

text: The full-face veil was banned in May 2015 in public places in Congo-Brazzaville to "counter terrorism", although there has not been an Islamist attack in the country.


title: Hijab by country

text: On 15 July 2015, Gabon announced a ban on the wearing of full-face veils in public and places of work because of the attacks in Cameroon.


title: Hijab by country

text: In September 2011, Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, passed the Identification Legislation Amendment Act 2011 to require a person to remove a face covering if asked by a state official. The law is viewed as a response to a court case of 2011 where a woman in Sydney was convicted of falsely claiming that a traffic policeman had tried to remove her "niqab".


title: Hijab by country

text: The debate in Australia is more about when and where face coverings may legitimately be restricted. In a Western Australian case in July 2010, a woman sought to give evidence in court wearing a niqab. The request was refused on the basis that the jury needs to see the face of the person giving evidence.


title: Hijab by country

text: In 2017, China banned the burqa in the Islamic area of Xinjiang. Photographer Fiona Reilly documented her interactions in 2019 with headscarf-clad Uyghur women in Kashgar.


title: Hijab by country

text: At a conference in Yangon held by the Organization for the Protection of Race and Religion on 21 June 2015, a group of monks locally called Ma Ba Tha declared that the headscarves "were not in line with school discipline", recommending the Burmese government to ban the wearing of "hijabs" by Muslim schoolgirls and to ban the butchering of animals on the Eid holiday.


title: Hijab by country

text: Philippine law recognizes the right of Muslim women to wear headscarves including the hijab. The Commission on Human Rights issued on CHR Advisory number 2013–002 on 8 August 2013, that its Gender Ombud affirms the human rights of Muslim women to wear hijab, burka, and niqabs as part of their freedom of expression and freedom of religion as a response to schools implementing a ban on wearing the headscarves. It cited the Magna Carta of Women, particularly Section 28 which states that "the state shall recognize and respect the rights of Moro and indigenous women to practice, promote, protect, and preserve their own culture, traditions, and institutions and to consider these rights in the formulation and implementation of national policies and programs."


title: Hijab by country

text: The Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Coast Guard, and Philippine National Police, and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology allows its female Muslim personnel to wear headscarves as part of their official uniform.


title: Hijab by country

text: In India, Muslim women are allowed to wear the hijab and/or burqa anytime, anywhere. However, in November 2017, a Catholic school in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district allegedly barred two Muslim students from wearing the headscarf inside the campus.


title: Hijab by country

text: In May 2019, the Muslim Educational Society in Kerala banned its students from wearing face-covering attire.


title: Hijab by country

text: In February 2020, Uttar Pradesh's labor minister Raghuraj Singh has called for an outright ban on women wearing burqas, suggesting that terrorists have been using them to elude authorities.


title: Hijab by country

text: In January 2022, a number of colleges in South-Indian state of Karnataka stopped female students wearing hijab from entering the campus. The issue has since then snow-balled into a major political controversy in India. Although there is no particular law stating the ban on hijab or any other kind of Islamic veil/dress in Karnataka, educational institutions have the right to make their own dress code. On 5 February 2022, the Karnataka government issued an order clarifying that uniforms must be worn compulsorily where policies exist and no exception can be made for the wearing of hijab. Several schools cited this order and denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab. War of words and protests by Muslim students protesting over hijab ban resulted in closure of all educational institutions in the state for three days and section 144 was declared near schools and colleges in Bengaluru city. On 15 March 2022, through a verdict, the Karnataka High Court upheld the hijab ban in educational institutions as a non essential part of Islam and suggested that wearing hijabs can be restricted in government colleges where uniforms are prescribed and ruled that " prescription of a school uniform " is a "reasonable restriction".


title: Hijab by country

text: A Sri Lankan MP called for both burqa and niqab to be banned from the country in wake of the Easter terror attack which happened on 21 April 2019 during a local parliamentary session.


title: Hijab by country

text: The Sri Lankan government banned all types of clothing covering the face, including the burqa and niqab, on 29 April 2019.


title: Hijab by country

text: On 12 December 2011, the Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration issued a decree banning the "niqab" or any other face-covering garments for women swearing their oath of citizenship; the "hijab" was not affected. This edict was later overturned by a Court of Appeal on the grounds of being unlawful.


title: Hijab by country

text: Mohamed Elmasry, a controversial former president of the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), has claimed that only a small minority of Muslim Canadian women actually wear these types of clothing. He has also said that women should be free to choose, as a matter of culture and not religion, whether they wear it. The CIC criticized a proposed law that would have required voters to show their faces before being allowed to cast ballots. The group described the idea as unnecessary, arguing that it would only promote discrimination against Muslims and provide "political mileage among Islamophobes".


title: Hijab by country

text: In February 2007, soccer player Asmahan Mansour, part of the team Nepean U12 Hotspurs, was expelled from a Quebec tournament for wearing her headscarf. Quebec soccer referees also ejected an 11-year-old Ottawa girl while she was watching a match.


title: Hijab by country

text: In November 2013, a bill commonly referred to as the Quebec Charter of Values was introduced in the National Assembly of Quebec by the Parti Québécois that would ban overt religious symbols in the Quebec public service. Thus would include universities, hospitals, and public or publicly funded schools and daycares. Criticism of this decision came from "The Globe and Mail" newspaper, saying that such clothing, as worn by "2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman", was "Good enough for Nobel, but not for Quebec". In 2014 however, the ruling Parti Québécois was defeated by the Liberal Party of Quebec and no legislation was enacted regarding religious symbols.


title: Hijab by country

text: In October 2017, Bill 62, a Quebec ban on face covering, made headlines. , the ban has been suspended by at least two judges for violating the "Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms". It was first suspended in December 2017.


title: Hijab by country

text: With regards to public opinion, a 27 October 2017 Ipsos poll found that 76 percent of Quebecers backed Bill 62, with 24 percent opposing it. The same survey found the 68 percent of Canadians in general supported a law similar to Bill 62 in their part of Canada. A 27 October Angus Reid Institute poll found that 70 percent Canadians outside of Quebec supported "legislation similar to Bill 62" where they lived in the country, with 30 percent opposing it.


title: Hijab by country

text: , wearing religious symbols is prohibited for all public servants in positions of authority in Quebec: police, judges and teachers.


title: Hijab by country

text: There is no ban on any Muslim clothing items. The first article of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States protects people against discrimination based on several matters including religion, ethnic origin and national origin. Article 6 of the Constitution grants "Libertad de Expresión" (freedom of expression) to all Mexicans which includes the way people choose to dress.


title: Hijab by country

text: The Muslim community is a minority; according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life there were about 3,700 Muslims in Mexico as of 2010, representing 0.003 percent of the total population. There is an almost complete lack of knowledge of Islam in Mexico, and any interest is more out of curiosity and tolerance than hatred or racism. Some Muslims suggest that it is easier to fit in if they are lax with the rules of their religion, for example by wearing regular clothing. Muslim women's clothing can vary from non-Muslim clothing to a "hijab" or a "chador".


title: Hijab by country

text: A 2017 poll found that 58% of Muslim women in the United States wear hijab at least some of the time. A 2011 study found that this number was higher among native-born Muslim women compared to first-generation Muslim immigrants.


title: Hijab by country

text: The people of the United States have a firm constitutional protection of freedom of speech from government interference that includes clothing items, as described by Supreme Court cases such as "Tinker v. Des Moines". As such, a ban on Islamic clothing is considered presumptively invalid by US sociopolitical commentators such as Mona Charen of "National Review". Journalist Howard LaFranchi of "The Christian Science Monitor" has referred to "the traditional American respect for different cultural communities and religions under the broad umbrella of universal freedoms" as forbidding the banning of Islamic dress. In his prominent June 2009 speech to the Muslim World in Cairo, President Barack Obama called on the West "to avoid dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear" and elaborated that such rules involve "hostility" towards Muslims in "the pretense of liberalism".


title: Hijab by country

text: Most gyms, fitness clubs, and other workout facilities in the United States are mixed-sex, so exercise without a "hijab" or "burqa" can be difficult for some observant Muslim women. Maria Omar, director of media relations for the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA), has advised Muslim women to avoid these complexes entirely. Some women decide to wear something colloquially known as the "sports "hijab"". Similarly, Muslim women may feel uncomfortable around other women with traditionally revealing American outfits, especially during the summer "bikini season". An outfit colloquially known as the "burqini" allows Muslim women to swim without displaying any significant amount of skin.


title: Hijab by country

text: Compared to Western Europe, there have been relatively few controversies surrounding the "hijab" in everyday life, a product of "pro-religious freedom" laws allowing for a wide range of religious accommodations, and also due to greater support for multiculturalism. One exception is the case of Sultaana Freeman, a Florida woman who had her driver's license cancelled due to her wearing of the "niqab" in her identification photo. She sued the state of Florida for religious discrimination, though her suit was unsuccessful.


title: Hijab by country

text: In January 2017, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division in Camden County dismissed two suits filed by Linda Tisby in summer 2015 against her former employer, the county's Department of Corrections. The court decided that a New Jersey Superior Court was right to rule that it would have been an "undue hardship" for the agency to accommodate her religious beliefs "because of overriding safety concerns, the potential for concealment of contraband, and the importance of uniform neutrality".


title: Tencent Games

text: Tencent Games () is the video game publishing division of Tencent Interactive Entertainment, itself a division of Tencent Holdings. It has five internal studio groups, including TiMi Studio Group. Tencent Games was founded in 2003 to focus on online games. In 2021, it launched its international Level Infinite brand, which is stated to be operated from its Singapore office.


title: Tencent Games

text: Tencent Games published its first game "QQ Tang" () in 2004, which is based on its social media platform QQ. This was soon followed by QQ variant games such as "Dungeon Fighter Online", a side-scrolling online beat 'em up game; "QQ Fantasy", a 2D online game that incorporates elements from Chinese mythology; "Xunxian", a 3D, online RPG; "QQ Sanguo", an online casual role-playing game set during the Three Kingdoms period; "QQ Huaxia", an online RPG; "QQ Dancer", an online musical dancing game that offers QQ IM interactivity; "QQ Nanaimo", an online game set on a desert island where players maintain houses and pets; "QQ Speed", a casual online racing game; "QQ R2Beat", an online in-line skating game; "QQ Tang", an "advanced casual game" with gameplay derived from Chinese literature; "QQ PET", and a QQ IM-based desktop virtual pet game. In August 2013, Tencent Games published Hi-Rez Studios's Smite in Mainland China.


title: Tencent Games

text: Tencent gradually turned to mobile gaming in 2013. A game center with a sizable mobile game user base was launched by Mobile QQ and WeChat in the upcoming years. In order to become the biggest online gaming firm in the world, the company concentrated on the global gaming market, investing in or aggressively purchasing foreign game companies.


title: Tencent Games

text: In 2015, Tencent Games published a multiplayer online battle arena game "Honor of Kings" () exclusively for the Mainland China markets developed by the L1 division of TiMi Studio Group, and by 2017 was both the world's most popular and highest-grossing game of all time as well as the most downloaded app globally. Tencent Games also released, under the brand Level Infinite, an international version of "Honor of Kings" named "Arena of Valor" in 2017. In 2011, Tencent Games started hosting online multiplayer games such as "Call of Duty Online", consisting of previous Call of Duty titles with added content, as well as the game "League of Legends". Tencent Games partly owns battle royale games such as "Fortnite" and fully own "Ring of Elysium".


title: Tencent Games

text: Starting in 2016, Tencent Games developed a video gaming console dubbed TGP (Tencent Gaming Platform) Box. The TGP BOX is called the Blade. It is an Intel-powered console running Windows 10 and a TGP Box mode. So far, the TGP console has imported many Tencent games, such as "League of Legends", "FIFA Online 3", "NBA 2K", "Monster Hunter", "Need for Speed", and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds". Tencent Games hopes to bring third-party developed games. On 22 November 2017, Tencent Games formally entered into a strategic co-operation with PUBG Studios and obtain exclusive rights to operate "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds" in China.


title: Tencent Games

text: Tencent Games plans to increase its advertising revenues through artificial intelligence and branded virtual costumes in its video games.


title: Tencent Games

text: On 18 March 2019, Tencent announced that its subsidiary, TiMi Studio Group, would develop Activision's . The game was released worldwide on 1 October 2019. As of 4 October 2019, the game has surpassed 35 million downloads and over $2 million in revenue.


title: Tencent Games

text: PUBG Mobile and its Mainland China version topped the global mobile games chart by revenue, raking in a combined US$232 million of sales in March 2020, as many people turned to online entertainment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Honor of Kings is ranked as the second highest-earning game globally, generating US$112 million in revenue.


title: Tencent Games

text: In July 2021, Tencent Games implemented a facial recognition system called "Midnight Patrol" in China to limit minors' access to games during curfew hours.


title: Tencent Games

text: In December 2021, Tencent Games launched a new game publishing brand under "Level Infinite," merging the "Proxima Beta" video games to this brand name"." The focus of the brand is marketing, events, and esports for the video game studios of the Interactive Entertainment Group division. The area served is global and includes titles from subsidiaries that belong to the Interactive Entertainment Group or have a partnership which includes the developers "TiMi Studio Group", "LightSpeed Studios". "Sharkmob", "Mighty Kingdom", "Fatshark", "Shengqu Games", "Next Studios", "The Outsiders", "10 Chambers", and "Funcom" as of 8 December 2021. The Initial games published under the brand include "Arena of Valor" created by the TiMi-J6 development division of TiMi Studio Group, "Synced" developed by Next Studios, and Don't Starve: Newhome developed by "Shengqu Games."


title: Tencent Games

text: Launched in 2007, based in Shanghai. Games include "Moonlight Blade" (), "Iron Knight", "Azure War:" () "Name of the Nature, Light and Night."


title: Tencent Games

text: Launched in 2008, based in Shenzhen with the pre-fusion name Quantum Studios. The initial video games with the studio group release were QQ Huaxia & Freedom Fantasy.


title: Tencent Games

text: In 2011, LightSpeed was founded; marking today's LightSpeed — Lightspeed & Quantum Studio Group brand name outside of Mainland China is LightSpeed Studios.


title: Tencent Games

text: The following divisions belong to, were acquired or created within the LightSpeed Studios, and are classified as subsidiaries of LightSpeed Studios.


title: Tencent Games

text: The first studio outside of Mainland China for LightSpeed Studios. The studio's office is in North America, Irvine. The studio director is Steve Martin. After the press releases, the subsidiary focuses on the first narrative-based, open-world IPs for an. unannounced 'next-gen console'.


title: Tencent Games

text: Launched in 2014, based in Shenzhen. Games include: "Honor of Kings (Arena of Valor)", "QQ Speed", "Call of Duty: Mobile"


title: Tencent Games

text: The Tencent Institute of Games was founded in 2016 as a company initiative to nurture talent and professional development, and promote knowledge sharing in the game industry. The division head is Xia Lin (Sammi). It has incubated games including Nishan Shaman and The Everlasting Regret. It cooperates with multiple universities and set up an enterprise college cooperative education model for game talent. The annual Tencent Games Developers Conference is held by this division.


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: The Gombe Chimpanzee War, also known as the Four-Year War, was a violent conflict between two communities of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in the Kigoma region of Tanzania between 1974 and 1978. The two groups were once unified in the Kasakela community. By 1974, researcher Jane Goodall noticed the community splintering. Over a span of eight months, a large party of chimpanzees separated themselves into the southern area of Kasakela and were renamed the Kahama community. The separatists consisted of six adult males, three adult females and their young. The Kasakela was left with eight adult males, twelve adult females and their young.


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: During the four-year conflict, all males of the Kahama community were killed, effectively disbanding the community. The victorious Kasakela then expanded into further territory but were later repelled by another community of chimpanzees.


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: Prior to the four-year war, before it became a national park, Gombe Stream National Park was known as the Gombe Stream Research Centre. The park is located in the lower region of the Kakombe Valley, and is known for its primate research opportunities first taken advantage of by researcher Jane Goodall, who served as the director of the Gombe Stream Research Centre. The site itself is composed of steep slopes of open woodland, rising above stream valleys lush with riverine forest.


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: The chimpanzees roamed across these hills in territorial communities, which divided the chimpanzees into parties ranging from one to 40 members. The term Kasakela refers to one of three areas of research in the central valley with the Kasakela in the north, the Kakombe, and the Mkenke to the south. Evidence of territorialism was first documented once Goodall followed the chimpanzees in their feeding situations, noting their aggressive territorial behavior, but she did not foresee the upcoming conflict.


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: After the secession of the Kasakela community, the newly formed Kahama were led by the brother duo Hugh and Charlie, with the other males being Godi, De, Goliath, and the young Sniff. The Kasakela males included Figan, Satan, Sherry, Evered, Rodolf, Jomeo, and Humphrey.


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: First blood was drawn by the Kasakela community on January 7, 1974, when a party of six adult Kasakela males consisting of Humphrey, Figan, Jomeo, Sherry, Evered, and Rodolf ambushed the isolated Kahama male Godi while he was feeding on a tree. This was the first time that any of the chimpanzees had been seen to deliberately kill a fellow male chimpanzee. After they had slain Godi, the victorious chimpanzees celebrated boisterously, throwing and dragging branches with hoots and screams.


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: After Godi fell, De was killed next, and then Hugh. Later on came the elderly Goliath. Throughout the war, Goliath had been relatively friendly with the Kasakela neighbors when encounters occurred. However, his kindness was not reciprocated and he was killed. Only three Kahama males remained: Charlie, Sniff, and Willy Wally, who was crippled from polio. Without a chance to strike back, Charlie was killed next. After his death, Willy Wally disappeared and was never found. The last remaining Kahama male, the young Sniff, survived for over a year. For some time it seemed as if he might escape into a new community or be welcomed back to the Kasakelas, but this did not occur. Sniff, too, fell to the Kasakela war band. Of the females from Kahama, one was killed, two went missing, and three were beaten and kidnapped by the Kasakela males. The Kasakela then succeeded in taking over the Kahama's former territory.


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: These territorial gains were not permanent, however. With the Kahama gone, the Kasakela territory now butted up directly against the territory of another chimpanzee community, called the Kalande. Cowed by the superior strength and numbers of the Kalande, as well as a few violent skirmishes along their border, the Kasakela quickly gave up much of their new territory. Furthermore, when they moved back northward, the Kasakela were harassed by Mitumba foragers, who also outnumbered the Kasakela community. Eventually hostilities died down and the regular order of things was restored.


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: Jane Goodall, a famous primatologist, is well known for her unprecedented findings of native chimpanzee populations in her studies. The outbreak of the war came as a disturbing shock to Goodall, who had previously considered chimpanzees to be, although similar to human beings, "rather 'nicer. Coupled with her 1975 observation of cannibalistic infanticide by a high-ranking female in the community, the Gombe war revealed the "dark side" of chimpanzee behavior. In her 1990 memoir "Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe", she wrote:


title: Gombe Chimpanzee War

text: When Goodall reported on the events of the Gombe War, her account of a naturally occurring war between chimpanzees was not universally believed. At the time, scientific models of human and animal behavior virtually never overlapped. Some scientists accused her of excessive anthropomorphism; others suggested that her presence, and her practice of feeding the chimpanzees, had created violent conflict in a naturally peaceful society. However, later research using less intrusive methods confirmed that chimpanzee societies, in their natural state, wage war. A 2018 study published in the "American Journal of Physical Anthropology" concluded that the Gombe War was most likely a consequence of a power struggle between three high-ranking males, which was exacerbated by an unusual scarcity of fertile females.


title: Exeter

text: Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.


title: Exeter

text: In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal command of Vespasian. Exeter became a religious centre in the Middle Ages. Exeter Cathedral, founded in the mid 11th century, became Anglican in the 16th-century English Reformation. Exeter became an affluent centre for the wool trade, although by the First World War the city was in decline. After the Second World War, much of the city centre was rebuilt and is now a centre for education, business and tourism in Devon and Cornwall. It is home to two of the constituent campuses of the University of Exeter: Streatham and St Luke's.


title: Exeter

text: The administrative area of Exeter has the status of a non-metropolitan district under the administration of the County Council. It is the county town of Devon and home to the headquarters of Devon County Council. A plan to grant the city unitary authority status was scrapped by the 2010 coalition government.


title: Exeter

text: The modern name of Exeter is a development of the Old English "Escanceaster", from the anglicised form of the river now known as the Exe and the Old English suffix (as in Dorchester and Gloucester), used to mark important fortresses or fortified towns. (The Welsh name for the city, , similarly means ""caer" or fortress on the Exe".) The name "Exe" is a separate development of the Brittonic name—meaning "water" or, more exactly, "full of fish" (cf. Welsh "pysg", "fish")—that also appears in the English Axe and Esk and the Welsh Usk ().


title: Exeter

text: Exeter began as settlements on a dry ridge ending in a spur overlooking a navigable river teeming with fish, with fertile land nearby. Although there have been no major prehistoric finds, these advantages suggest the site was occupied early.


title: Exeter

text: Coins have been discovered from the Hellenistic kingdoms, suggesting the existence of a settlement trading with the Mediterranean as early as . Such early towns had been a feature of pre-Roman Gaul as described by Julius Caesar in his "Commentaries" and it is possible that they existed in Britannia as well.


title: Exeter

text: The unreliable source Geoffrey of Monmouth stated that when Vespasian besieged the city in 49 AD its Celtic name was "Kaerpenhuelgoit", meaning 'town on the hill under the high wood'.


title: Exeter

text: The Romans established a 'playing-card' shaped (rectangle with round corners and two short and two long sides) fort () named Isca around AD 55. The fort was the southwest terminus of the Fosse Way (Route 15 of the "Antonine Itinerary") and served as the base of the man Second Augustan Legion () at some time led by Vespasian, later Roman Emperor, for the next 20 years before they moved to Caerleon in Wales, which was also known as Isca. To distinguish the two, the Romans also referred to Exeter as , "Watertown of the Dumnonii", and Caerleon as Isca Augusta. A small fort was also maintained at Topsham; a supply depot on the route between the two was excavated at on Topsham Road in 2010.


title: Exeter

text: The presence of the fort built up an unplanned civilian community ( or ) of natives and the soldiers' families, mostly to the northeast of the fort. This settlement served as the tribal capital () of the Dumnonii and was listed as one of their four cities () by Ptolemy in his "Geography" (it also appeared in the 7th-century "Ravenna Cosmography", where it appears as an apparently confused entry for ). When the fortress was abandoned around the year 75, its grounds were converted to civilian purposes: its very large bathhouse was demolished to make way for a forum and a basilica, and a smaller-scale bath was erected to the southeast. This area was excavated in the 1970s, but could not be maintained for public view owing to its proximity to the present-day cathedral. In January 2015, it was announced that Exeter Cathedral had launched a bid to restore the baths and open an underground centre for visitors.


title: Exeter

text: In the late 2nd century, the ditch and rampart defences around the old fortress were replaced by a bank and wall enclosing a much larger area, some 92 acres (37 ha). Although most of the visible structure is older, the course of the Roman wall was used for Exeter's subsequent city walls. Thus about 70% of the Roman wall remains, and most of its route can be traced on foot. The Devonian Isca seems to have been most prosperous in the first half of the 4th century: more than a thousand Roman coins have been found around the city and there is evidence for copper and bronze working, a stock-yard, and markets for the livestock, crops, and pottery produced in the surrounding countryside. The dating of the coins so far discovered, however, suggests a rapid decline: virtually none have been discovered dated after the year 380.


title: Exeter

text: Bishop Ussher identified the Cair , listed among the 28 cities of Britain by the "History of the Britons", as Isca, although David Nash Ford read it as a reference to Penselwood and thought it more likely to be Lindinis (modern Ilchester). Nothing is certainly known of Exeter from the time of the Roman withdrawal from Britain around the year 410 until the seventh century. By that time, the city was held by the Saxons, who had arrived in Exeter after defeating the British Dumnonians at Peonnum in Somerset in 658. It seems likely that the Saxons maintained a quarter of the city for the Britons under their own laws around present-day Bartholomew Street, which was known as "Britayne" Street until 1637 in memory of its former occupants.


title: Exeter

text: Exeter was known to the Saxons as Escanceaster. In 876, it was attacked and briefly captured by Danish Vikings. Alfred the Great drove them out the next summer. Over the next few years, he elevated Exeter to one of the four "burhs" in Devon, rebuilding its walls on the Roman lines. These permitted the city to fend off another attack and siege by the Danes in 893. King Athelstan again strengthened the walls around 928, and at the same time drove out the remaining Britons from the city. (It is uncertain, though, whether they had lived in the city continuously since the Roman period or returned from the countryside when Alfred strengthened its defences.) According to William of Malmesbury, they were sent beyond the River Tamar, which was fixed as the boundary of Devon. (This may, however, have served as a territorial boundary within the former kingdom of Dumnonia as well.) Other references suggest that the British simply moved to what is now the area, not far outside Exeter's walls. The quarter vacated by the Britons was apparently adapted as "the earl's burh" and was still named Irlesberi in the 12th century. In 1001, the Danes again failed to get into the city, but they were able to plunder it in 1003 because they were let in, for unknown reasons, by the French reeve of Emma of Normandy, who had been given the city as part of her dowry on her marriage to Æthelred the Unready the previous year.


title: Exeter

text: Two years after the Norman conquest of England, Exeter rebelled against King William. Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, the mother of the slain King Harold, was living in the city at the time, and William promptly marched west and initiated a siege. After 18 days, William accepted the city's honourable surrender, swearing an oath not to harm the city or increase its ancient tribute. However, William quickly arranged for the building of Rougemont Castle to strengthen Norman control over the area. Properties owned by Saxon landlords were transferred into Norman hands and, on the death of Bishop Leofric in 1072, the Norman Osbern FitzOsbern was appointed his successor.