Muscat: Oman has not proposed any such ban for the GCC recently, as reported in regional media, a top police official has said.
The country has had a ban on driving with a face veil for some time.
In Oman, wearing a [face veil] while driving is already a traffic violation and it is working fine, so there’s no reason for us [Oman] to propose the same at the GCC meet,” Brigadier Mohammad Bin Awadh Al Rawas, Director General of Traffic with the Royal Oman Police (ROP), who attended the meeting of the traffic heads from the GCC member states in Jeddah last week, told Gulf News on Sunday.
Saudi media reported last week that Oman had proposed at the Jeddah meet banning women from driving while wearing the face veil that is worn by some Muslim women. The veil covers the entire face, leaving an opening for the eyes. Al Rawas expressed surprise at the reports, saying the ban was not new in Oman.
Meanwhile, Brigadier Al Rawas said that traffic accident-related fatalities were gradually coming down in the country following a slew of measures taken by the Traffic Department since the beginning of this year.
“The awareness is increasing and at the same time the deterrents are also working,” he said.
According to latest statistics released by the ROP, in the first 75 days of 2013 fatalities on roads had come down by 15 per cent. This year 145 people were killed in the fist two and half months against 170 during the same period last year.
