REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANJUL -- Female civil servants in the west African country of Gambia have been ordered to cover their hair at work by wearing hijab. All female staff within the government ministries, departments and agencies are no longer allowed to expose their hair during official working hours effective 31st December 2015, AFP reported.

“Female staff are urged to use head tie and neatly wrap their hair,” Gambian government wrote in a memorandum.

A senior official in the education ministry confirmed that the note had been circulated among government departments. The new rule comes hot on the heels of President Yahya Jammeh’s categorisation of the small predominantly Muslim country in mid-December as an Islamic state.

“Gambia’s destiny is in the hands of the Almighty Allah. We will be an Islamic state that will respect the rights of the citizens,” he said.

At the time he warned against trying to impose a dress code on women.

“I have not appointed anyone as an Islamic policeman. The way women dress is not your business,” he said.

An impoverished former British colony famed for its white-sand beaches, the Gambia has a population of nearly two million, 90 percent of whom are Muslim. Eight percent are Christian and two percent are defined as having indigenous beliefs.

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