President of Kyrgyzstan says 'Women in mini-skirts don’t become suicide bombers, Islamic dresses radicalizes women'

President of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev who has tried in the past to dissuade women in the country from dressing in hijabs, niqabs and burkas has said that women that do Islamic dressing are more prone to radicalization by Islamic terrorists than women who wear mini-skirts.

According to the 59 year old Atambayev, who has been the President of Kyrgyzstan since December 2011, terrorists are insane people and that even clothing can change one's thinking process.  Atambayev also said that he'll prefer his country's women to wear mini skirts rather than dress up the Islamic way.

Atambayev said:

"When we erected banners some smart people appeared and started pointing at miniskirts.Our women have been wearing miniskirts since 1950s, and they never thought about wearing an explosive belt. You can wear even tarpaulin boots on your head, but do not organise bombings. This is not religion.

“Let them wear even miniskirts but there must not be any blasts. Terrorists are insane people. Clothes also can change one’s thoughts sometimes. When we were searching for prisoners who had escaped a detention centre, Melis Turganbayev (the former interior minister) came to me and said that they had been eavesdropping on telephone conversations of wives and mistresses of criminals.

“Their wives and mistresses wore sacks on their heads and they wanted to organise bombings. If you do not like Kyrgyzstan you can leave our country and go wherever you want. We can pay your travel expenses, even to Syria.”

In 2014 President Atambayev said that it was not the Islamic traditions he had a problem with but more “Arabisation of society [and the] deprivation of the Kyrgyz nation of its language and traditions”. 

His comments come after banners across Kyrgyzstan have been erected showing women in the nation’s traditional clothing contrasted with women in niqabs and burkas captioned: “Poor people! Where are we heading to?”

Many people in the mainly Muslim country have been outraged by the campaign and pointed out that the traditional Kyrgyz “elchek” head dress is almost as conservative as the hijab.