Sri Lanka’s president reimposed a four-decade-long ban on women buying liquor, just days after his finance minister had lifted the restriction.
Maithripala Sirisena said he had ordered Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera to revoke his decision last week to overturn the 1979 law prohibiting the sale of any type of alcohol to women.
“The minister’s order will be rescinded,” Sirisena’s office said in a statement, which added that the status quo will be restored but offered no explanation.
The reversal comes after a finance ministry official told AFP Samaraweera had revoked the 39-year-old law in an effort to strike sexist bills from the statute books. “The idea was to restore gender neutrality,” ministry spokesman Ali Hassen said of the decision Wednesday to roll back the ban.
