From IBTimes. Story by Angelo Young.

Increasingly, questions are being raised about burqas and security concerns in sub-Saharan Africa, where Boko Haram, the radical Islamist militant group operating out of Northern Nigeria, has conducted numerous terrorist operations.

In some cases burqas have been used by suicide bombers to infiltrate crowded places.

A burqa by definition conceals identity and allows ample room for wearers to conceal bomb vests. When a male suicide bomber wearing a burqa murdered 15 people in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, last summer it came amid increasing scrutiny in the region over the security threat posed by allowing full face and body veils.

In June, Chad’s government banned the burqa amid a raft of fatal suicide bombings, saying the garb was being used as “camouflage” by militants. Amid a growing regional threat posed by Boko Haram, the Islamic State group-aligned, Nigeria-based radical Islamist group that threatened four West African countries, local governments have adopted (a) burqa-ban stance.

In July, Cameroon followed Chad’s example, banning the garb in five of its 10 provinces, while Niger implemented the ban in its restive Diffa province. The Republic of Congo also prohibited the burqa last year. In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari is mulling a similar policy. Senegal is, too.

Security measures have been implemented in the region in recent months to combat a rising tide of suicide bombings, including curfews, increased scrutiny of vehicles with tinted windows, and even a ban on motorbikes (a preferred bomb-delivery device) in crowded areas.

Most people in Chad, Senegal and Niger are Muslim while one in five Cameroonians practice Islam. But historically, adherents in the region have been averse to extreme Islamic expressions, including the full face veil and the baggy, black burqa, which are considered by many in the region to be a practice foreign to local traditions. Muslim women in the region have historically leaned toward colorful, face-exposing head scarves.

But in the past few decades, owing largely to Saudi Arabia’s efforts to spread its super-strict brand of Islam, the full black body veil has taken root in sub-Saharan Africa.

“We thought it would never be part of the culture in Senegal, but more and more people are following these rituals,” Aliou Ly, a Senegal-born assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University, told The Economist in a report published Saturday.

Read more at IBTimes.