Melikov spoke out against niqabs after the terrorist attack in Dagestan

The niqab is not peculiar to the Caucasian peoples; men can hide under it, and women can carry prohibited items, Melikov said, but emphasized that he does not consider wearing this clothing to be radical Islamism.

The head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, opposed the niqab from a security point of view, but did not agree with those who believe that wearing it is a manifestation of radical Islam. He said this at a session of the National Assembly of Dagestan.

Dagestan is “indiscriminately labeled” as a radical Islamic republic, but this is not so, Melikov said. According to him, this is said by those who do not understand the essence of radical Islam, who attribute the successes of Dagestani fighters in MMA and freestyle wrestling to this concept, and those who “believe that the highest manifestation of radical Islam is wearing a niqab.”

“Personally, I am against wearing a niqab, including as a person who has repeatedly carried out tasks to counter terrorism. Because this is clothing that is not typical for the Caucasian peoples, which also makes it possible for men to hide behind these scarves, and for women to carry prohibited items behind these large robes,” Melikov explained.

But this is not the main reason for radical Islam, “it is not because of the niqabs that movements such as Al-Qaeda or ISIS appeared (both organizations are recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia - RBC),” Melikov concluded.

Discussions around religious clothing in Russia resumed this spring. In May, the head of the Presidential Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeev, reflecting on factors increasing the risks of extremism, said that the wearing of the niqab should be banned in the country. Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Vladislav Davankov (New People) introduced into the lower house a bill banning the wearing of face-obscuring religious clothing in school. The initiative was sharply criticized by State Duma deputy from Chechnya Adam Delimkhanov, who said that Russia is a multi-religious country where “religious traditional and family values ​​are supported at the highest level.” Davankov responded by saying that he respects all religions, but developed a document based on requests received.

Deputies from  the Communist Party of the Russian Federation prepared a similar project , calling the prevention of radical Islamism one of the goals. At the same time, the  Ministry of Internal Affairs, in response to a request from deputy Mikhail Matveev, stated that they did not have “information about the cause-and-effect relationship between wearing clothes modeled in accordance with religious rules and the commission of illegal acts of an extremist nature.”

In 2012, President Vladimir Putin opposed attempts to impose compulsory hijabs on Muslims. “Hijabs are not in our culture, in our traditional Islam. Why should we introduce traditions that are alien to us?” - he said then.