The legislature of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has approved a regulation banning the wearing of the burqa, an Islamic garment that covers women's faces, in public places in the regional capital of Urumqi.

Burqas are not traditional dress for Uygur women, and wearing them in public places is banned in countries such as Belgium and France.

The regional People's Congress told Xinhua Saturday the regulation will go into effect after being amended. It was drafted by the municipal legislature of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, last year.

The regulation is seen as an effort to curb growing extremism that forced Uygur women to abandon their colorful traditional dress and wear black burqas.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2015)