Islamic authorities in Dagestan, Russia’s predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region, temporarily barred women from wearing the niqab full-face veil on Wednesday, following 22 deaths in simultaneous attacks on churches and synagogues last month.
The Dagestan Muftiate issued a statement announcing a “temporary” ban on the niqab in response to a plea from Russia’s ministry of nationality policy and religious affairs.
According to reports, one of the gunmen intended to flee wearing a niqab.
The muftiate, a religious institution that represents Dagestani Muslims, stated that the ban will remain in effect “until the identified threats are eliminated and a new theological conclusion is reached.”
The niqab, a type of veil that covers the majority of the face and body, developed on the Arabian Peninsula and gained popularity in Dagestan during an Islamic revival in the region following the Soviet Union’s demise in 1991.
Though only a small minority of Dagestani women wear full-face veils, niqabs have been a common sight in the region’s larger cities.
Similar veils are banned by law in several European and post-Soviet countries.
Twenty-two people were killed in a simultaneous attacks on Orthodox churches, synagogues, and police checkpoints across Dagestan on June 23.
Security forces said they killed five attackers in gun battles that left a synagogue in the city of Derbent gutted by flames.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Dagestan was plagued by an Islamist insurgency that spread from neighboring Chechnya, however regional security had improved in recent years.
In October, a ‘anti-Israeli’ crowd stormed the airport in Makhachkala, Dagestan, looking for Israeli and Jewish passengers arriving from Tel Aviv.
Five months later, ISIS’s Central Asian affiliate claimed responsibility for a March attack on a Moscow concert hall, killing 145 people.
Russian officials captured five Tajik nationals who they claimed were responsible for the gun and bomb attack.
