An instance of systemic injustice I read about is the banning of the burka and other face coverings in Sri Lanka in order to have more national security. Two years ago in April 2019, suicide bombers attacked Catholic churches and tourists hotels on Easter Sunday. This is because the burka was being seen as a sign of religious extremism. Sri Lanka’s public security minister, Sarath Weerasekara, signed an order that is waiting approval. The order will permanently ban the burka and face coverings in order to have more national security and stop these attacks, which are believed to be by the Islamic State militant group.
Although Sarath Weerasekara wants the ban, vice president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, Hilmi Ahmed, claims that no matter what someone’s faith is, they have the right to wear a face covering and the matter should be viewed in the context as whether or not wearing a face covering is something they have the right to do, instead of always only viewing it in a religious context. He stated that, “there would not be any objection from anyone to remove the face cover for identity purposes” if any officials needed them to do so.
The intersecting identities of being female and being Muslim forces them to become “Other” and affects how they view their identity. Even within this group of people, there is further marginalization based on whether or not they support banning burkas and head coverings or if they want to continue wearing it because they believe they have the right to wear it if they still want to. More specifically, the intersecting identities of being female, Muslim, and a child makes those with these intersecting identities Subaltern. Mr. Weerasekara stated that the government planned on banning over one thousand madrassa Islamic schools.
https://www.lankaeducation.com/muslim-madrassa-schools-to-absorb-into-education-ministry-sri-lanka/
If this happens, these children will lack access to education which is a grave injustice. Mr. Ahmed stressed that the majority of Muslim schools are registered with the government and therefore adhere to the government’s education policies. Only about five percent of Muslim schools do not adhere to the policies and he agrees that these schools should be closed, but the vast majority of the schools that do adhere to the government’s policies should not be closed simply for being Muslim schools. These children that attend these schools have no say in the matter and are spoken for on the terms of the government instead of on their own terms. The banning of burqas and closing madrassa schools both specifically affect Muslims who are already minorities in Sri Lanka, making up only 9% of the population of 22 million people.