The Civil Service Commission will now be allowing employees to wear the niqab, or full-faced veil, to work.
The commission has so far enforced the 2014 regulation which requires civil service employees to dress in a manner that allows others to ‘clearly identify them’.
This unprecedented move was announced in a circular, dated to 12th March, which states that this particular article in the 2014 regulation does not apply solely to an employee’s form of dress.
The commission now recognizes that an employee, who wears the niqab, carrying commission-issued identification is adequate to satisfy this requirement.
In 2017, a teacher at the Alif Alif Atoll Education Center, hired before the regulation was enforced, was let go for wearing the niqab.