Religious scholars assess likelihood of observing ban on niqabs in Dagestan

The niqab-banning fatwa is not mandatory; it will be observed only by those for whom the Dagestani Muftiate is an authority; and they are not all residents of the republic. This is the result of polling religious scholars and a former Imam conducted by the "Caucasian Knot".

"The Sharia Law says that a court decision is mandatory for a Muslim, and not only of a Sharia Court; while a fatwa, according to the Sharia Law, is not binding," Leonid Syukiyainen, an expert in the comparative legislation and the Islamic law, has explained.

According to his story, public reprimands could be a kind of punishment for those Muslim women in Dagestan who continue wearing niqabs.

Mr Syukiyainen has stressed that in the Muslim world, the prevailing viewpoint is that what is adopted at the legislative level is mandatory.

According to Vladimir Bobrovnikov, the head of the Centre for Studying Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Ural-Volga Region at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the enforcement of the ban will most likely be entrusted to Imams.

Akhmad Anchikhsky, a former Imam of the Dagestani Nadiriyya Mosque, has expressed the opinion that women in Islam are recommended to cover their faces if there is a danger of temptation for men. In his opinion, the Muftiate's fatwa on the temporary ban on niqabs is unlikely to be followed by all Muslims.