Algerian authorities banned women working in public sector from wearing full-face veils, niqab. In a letter sent to ministers and regional governors on 18 October, Ahmed Ouahiya, the country’s prime minister said the need for identification had prompted the move. According to a statement released by the government titled, ‘The duties of employees and public servants in dress codes’, women “are obliged to respect the rules and requirements of security and communication which is at the level of their interests, and requires the recognition of their identity in an automatic and permanent manner, especially in the workplace.” The document has also listed instructions to be strictly adhered to, saying that any clothes preventing women from carrying out their public duties are banned. Most Algerian women do not wear the niqab, a custom imported from more traditionally conservative Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia. The decision has sparked many critics from Algeria’s Salafists minority.