Authorities in Bahrain have shut down an Indian restaurant for allegedly denying entry to a woman wearing a veil, news website GDN Online reported.
The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority has begun an investigation into the matter. The alleged incident took place at the Lanterns restaurant, located in the Adliya area of Bahrain’s capital Manama.
The BTEA said that restaurants should avoid enforcing policies that violate the country’s laws, according to The Daily Tribune. “We reject all actions that discriminate against people, especially regarding their national identity,” it said.
The authority added that it has closed the restaurant in accordance with Decree Law Number 15 of 1986, which pertains to tourism-related establishments.
On Thursday, the Lanterns restaurant said that a manager who is said to have barred the woman from entering its premises is being suspended “as this does not represent who we are”.
“Everyone is welcome to Lanterns as how it has been for more than 35 years that we have been serving all nationalities in the beautiful Kingdom of Bahrain,” the restaurant said on Instagram. It invited Bahraini citizens to have complimentary food at the restaurant on March 29 “as a goodwill gesture”.
The incident in Bahrain took place amid the ban on the wearing of the hijab in educational institutes in Karnataka.
For several weeks in February, Hindu students and mobs of men protested against Muslim women wearing hijabs to schools and pre-university colleges in the state. At some colleges, Muslim students were heckled, while in another case, some men climbed up a flagpole to plant a saffron flag and broke into classrooms.