Today, at the press center of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Minister of Religious Affairs and Civil Society Nurlan Yermekbayev commented on the situation with the ban on wearing clothes of destructive ideological movements in Kazakhstan.

According to Nurlan Yermekbayev, the draft law “on Amendments and Additions to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Religious Activity and Religious Associations” contains a regulation on prohibiting the use of clothing that covers a person or prevents the recognition of a person in public places. This is done in the interests of public security first of all, the Minister said.

"Here we are not talking about the ban on wearing Muslim clothes. We are talking about the prohibition of demonstration of the attributes of destructive and aloof ideological and religious trends in public places. This is not connected with any traditional religion," N. Yermekbayev explained.

The Minister noted that niqabs and hijabs fall under the category of garments that prevent the recognition of a person. However, this category does not include medical masks and construction garments.

"Here we are talking about the permanent garments that prevent the recognition of appearance. In principle, any citizen of Kazakhstan has the right to wear any clothing, including religious clothing, but under two conditions. First, it should not cover appearance, the second - it should not publicly propagate destructive religious or ideological trends," the Minister said.

On the questions of journalists regarding the norms and requirements for attributes of clothing, the Minister replied as follows:

"Everything will be regulated by law. There is such a scheme - the law is adopted, the implementation of this law adopts a normative legal act that details all specific issues."