Egyptian court upholds uni ban on full face veil
Source: Agencies |
January 4, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A CAIRO court yesterday ruled in favor of the Egyptian government's decision to ban female students wearing the niqab, or full face veil, in university examinations.
The case, and that of a religious edict banning the niqab in girls' schools dormitories, has bounced back and forth among various courts after the minister of higher education imposed the ban in October and it was then appealed by 55 students.
The government has long been wary of Islamist thinking, and in the 1990s crushed Islamists seeking to set up a religious state. It also is keen to quell opposition ahead of a parliamentary election expected by December, to be followed by a presidential vote.
The government said it brought in the ban in part because students, male and female, were sitting exams disguised as other candidates by wearing a face veil.
However, yesterday's administrative court ruling will not necessarily be an end to the case because such cases can be appealed and refiled many times in Egypt.
The right to wear the niqab in universities has long been an issue for Egypt's courts.
In 2007, a court ruled that the American University in Cairo, seen as a bastion of Western liberal education in Egypt, was wrong to bar a female scholar who wears the niqab from using its facilities.
Just 30 years ago, women attended Egypt's flagship Cairo University wearing miniskirts and sleeveless tops.
Today, majority Sunni Muslim Egypt has seen the growing influence of strict Saudi-based Wahhabi ideology on an already conservative and Islamised society. This has resulted in a huge increase in the number of women wearing veils, or headscarfs, and the full face veil.
The case, and that of a religious edict banning the niqab in girls' schools dormitories, has bounced back and forth among various courts after the minister of higher education imposed the ban in October and it was then appealed by 55 students.
The government has long been wary of Islamist thinking, and in the 1990s crushed Islamists seeking to set up a religious state. It also is keen to quell opposition ahead of a parliamentary election expected by December, to be followed by a presidential vote.
The government said it brought in the ban in part because students, male and female, were sitting exams disguised as other candidates by wearing a face veil.
However, yesterday's administrative court ruling will not necessarily be an end to the case because such cases can be appealed and refiled many times in Egypt.
The right to wear the niqab in universities has long been an issue for Egypt's courts.
In 2007, a court ruled that the American University in Cairo, seen as a bastion of Western liberal education in Egypt, was wrong to bar a female scholar who wears the niqab from using its facilities.
Just 30 years ago, women attended Egypt's flagship Cairo University wearing miniskirts and sleeveless tops.
Today, majority Sunni Muslim Egypt has seen the growing influence of strict Saudi-based Wahhabi ideology on an already conservative and Islamised society. This has resulted in a huge increase in the number of women wearing veils, or headscarfs, and the full face veil.
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