Islamabad, Pakistan - Pakistani authorities have banned a stage play for ridiculing the burqa, the veil traditionally worn by Muslim women, a minister said after Islamist MPs raised the issue in parliament Thursday.
"The veil has long been part of local culture and nobody is allowed to make fun of these values," culture minister Ghazi Gulab Jamal said.
The satirical play Burqa Vaganza was staged this month by Ajoka Theater at the Arts Council in the eastern city of Lahore, known as the country's cultural capital.
Islamist women lawmakers raised the issue in the lower house, saying that the play was against the "Koranic injunctions on the veil."
The minister told the house that the government had banned the play and "stopped [its] staging it in other cities," following the end of its run in Lahore.
"We do not like that someone should ridicule our cultural values. Burqa is very much part of our culture," Jamal said.
The theater's owner, Madiha Gohar, condemned the ban, saying that giving in to the Islamists' demands "negates the government's policy of enlightened moderation.
"We are trying to end the evils from the society, we are against forcing women to wear burqa. I condemn the ban," she said.
Gohar said the theme of the play reflected the aggressive behavior of the burqa-clad female students of Jamia Hafsa school in Islamabad's Red Mosque.
Baton-wielding female and male students of two schools attached to the Lal Masjid or Red Mosque have launched so-called morality patrols targeting music and video shops, and local brothels.
"We are against making mockery of any religion, be it Islam, Christianity, or Judaism," MP Samia Raheel Qazi said.
"The play targeted hijab [veil] and hurt the feelings of Muslim women. It also violated the country's constitution, which says that nobody is allowed to hurt sentiments of the followers of any religion," she added.
The Red Mosque's leader, Abdul Aziz, earlier this month announced the creation of a self-styled Islamic court and threatened the government with suicide attacks if it tried to shut the court down.
The court then issued a fatwa or Islamic decree calling for the sacking and punishment of tourism minister Nilofar Bakhtiar after she was pictured hugging a foreign paragliding instructor after a charity event.
The ban on the play comes as the government of President Pervez Musharraf is locked in negotiations with the mosque's leaders in a bid to avert a potentially violent confrontation.