The Latest Country to Ban the Burqa is……

Syria.

No, really:

The Syrian minister of higher education has prohibited the entrance of veiled female students into universities and colleges throughout the country, news agencies reported Sunday.

Dr. Ghitath Barakat explained that the donning of face veils, which cover everything but the woman's eyes, "opposes the morals and values of the academy".


Barakat's decree followed similar ones approved by a number of European parliaments, including Belgium and France.

Obviously, while Syria is a part of both the Arab world and the Islamic world, it is in a number of ways atypical. Its rulers are Alawites, who are not considered normative Muslims by Sunni or Shia, and the government is rather stridently secularist, it is the sole remaining Ba'athist regime, but it does provide an interesting counterpoint to European bans.