In many countries around the world, women’s choices about their attire and appearance are restricted to some degree by government laws, policies or regulations. In recent years, most of these countries have had laws or policies that ban women from wearing religious attire in public places or limit their ability to do so in some circumstances. By comparison, far fewer countries require women to wear particular types of attire (such as headscarves or long dresses) for religious reasons.

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As part of its annual study on government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion, Pew Research Center tracks the number of countries where some level of government – national, provincial or local – regulates “the wearing of religious symbols, such as head coverings for women and facial hair for men.”¹ Looking at only those laws, policies or regulations that apply specifically to women, the Center finds that 50 of the 198 countries and territories included in the study had at least one law or policy regulating women’s religious attire in 2012 and 2013, the two most recent years for which data are available. About three-quarters of those countries (39 of the 50, or 78%) had a law or policy limiting women’s ability to wear religious attire, while about a quarter (12 of the 50, or 24%) had at least one law or policy requiring women to wear particular attire. Some of these laws or policies applied nationwide, while others were imposed at the provincial, state or local level. One country – Russia – had policies forbidding women from wearing religious attire (in the territory of Stavropol, where Muslim headscarves, or hijabs, were banned in public schools) as well as policies requiring women to wear religious attire (in Chechnya, where women were required to wear hijabs in all public buildings).²

Laws or policies limiting women’s ability to wear religious attire were particularly common in Europe, where 18 of the region’s 45 countries (40%) had at least one such restriction in 2012-2013.³ Several European countries effectively banned certain types of religious garb in public places. In France, for example, authorities continued to enforce a law passed in 2010 that prohibits people from covering their faces in public places, including government buildings, public transportation and venues such as restaurants and movie theaters. Those who did not comply with a police officer’s request to uncover their face could be fined or ordered to attend a citizenship class.⁴ A similar policy was in effect in Belgium, where police continued to enforce a 2011 federal law banning people from wearing clothing that covers the face, or large parts of it, in public places. Violators could be fined and/or detained for up to seven days.⁵ In December 2012, Belgium’s Constitutional Court upheld the ban, ruling that it was necessary to protect public safety, ensure equality between men and women and preserve “a certain conception of ‘living together’ in society.”⁶

In the Middle East and North Africa, four countries – Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Sudan – had laws requiring women to wear religious attire. Authorities in Saudi Arabia, for instance, continued to require women to wear an abaya (a loose-fitting black cloak) in public.⁷ Four Middle Eastern countries (20%) – Algeria, Egypt, Israel and Oman – had policies limiting women’s ability to wear religious attire in at least some situations. In Egypt, for example, the government banned female employees of the national airline from wearing hijabs at work until 2012.⁸ Security forces in Israel prevented some Palestinian women prisoners from wearing hijabs during interrogations.⁹ In Algeria, female government workers were allowed to wear headscarves and face-covering Islamic veils (niqabs), but authorities discouraged certain employees from doing so if it would “complicate the performance of their official duties.”[10. See U.S. Department of State. May 20, 2013. “Algeria.” 2012 Report on International Religious Freedom.] Oman allowed women to wear headscarves in official photographs, but it did not allow them to wear face-covering veils.¹⁰

In the Asia-Pacific region, laws or policies requiring women to wear religious attire were found in six of the 50 countries (12%). In Indonesia, for example, 79 local bylaws required women to wear a hijab in 2013,[12. See Human Rights Watch. 2014. “World Report 2014: Indonesia.] while Iranian women were required to cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothing in public places.¹¹ Laws restricting women’s ability to wear religious attire were present in 11 of the 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region (22%) in 2012-2013. In India, some schools and colleges in certain areas banned Muslim female students and teachers from wearing headscarves, citing uniform dress codes.[14. See U.S. Department of State. May 20, 2013. “India.” 2012 Report on International Religious Freedom. Also see July 17, 2012. “‘Hijab May Affect Academic Process, Make Others Uncomfortable’.” The Express Tribune.] Singapore, meanwhile, prohibited some public-sector employees, including nurses, front-line military officers and employees of certain schools, from wearing hijabs in the workplace.[15. See U.S. Department of State. July 28, 2014. “Singapore.” 2013 Report on International Religious Freedom. Also see Nov. 13, 2013. “Singapore: Campaigners Bid to Overturn Hijab Ban.” BBC News.]

In sub-Saharan Africa, laws or policies requiring women to wear religious attire were present in one country – Somalia – where the Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab required women living in areas under its control to be veiled while in public in 2012.¹²Laws or policies restricting religious attire were present in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Women in Mozambique were not allowed to wear headscarves in official photographs for identification documents, and girls were prohibited from wearing face-covering veils or body-covering burqas in public schools. ¹³ In Kenya, some government schools prevented girls from attending classes if they wore headscarves or other religious attire. This policy affected not only Muslims but also members of the Akorino group, which combines Christian and traditional African styles of worship; its followers, both men and women, usually cover their heads.[18. See U.S. Department of State. July 28, 2014. “Kenya.” 2013 Report on International Religious Freedom. Also see Namlola, Juma. March 25, 2015. “Muslim Leaders to Appeal High Court Ban on Veils in Schools.” The Nation.]

The sources used for this study did not detect any countries in the Americas that required women to wear religious dress in 2012-2013, but one country – Canada – restricted women’s religious attire. Candidates for Canadian citizenship had to remove any face-covering veils when taking the oath of citizenship so that authorities could verify that they had recited the oath.[19. See U.S. Department of State. July 28, 2014. “Canada.” 2013 Report on International Religious Freedom.] In April 2013, a judge in the Canadian province of Ontario ruled that a Muslim woman had to remove her face-covering veil in order to testify in a sexual assault case. The Canadian Supreme Court had ruled in 2012 that presiding judges should make such decisions on a case-by-case basis.¹⁴

Regulation of religious dress is one of 20 items that make up Pew Research Center’s annual index measuring the extent of government restrictions on religion around the world. To track this and other indicators of government restrictions on religion, researchers comb through more than a dozen publicly available, widely cited sources of information, including the U.S. State Department’s annual reports on international religious freedom and annual reports from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as reports from several independent, nongovernmental organizations and a variety of European and United Nations bodies.[21. For more details on the index and the sources, see the Methodology for Pew Research Center’s February 2015 report “Latest Trends in Religious Restrictions and Hostilities.”] If an incident is mentioned in one of these sources, researchers may search newspaper articles or other sources for additional details to flesh out the anecdotes used to illustrate the restrictions.

The Center’s studies on religious restrictions are part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world. This project is jointly funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation.

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