Veil war breaks out on Egypt university campus
Veil war breaks out on Egypt university campus
Original here
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Gulf News Published: 10/22/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)
Cairo: Zeinab, a veiled student at the University of Helwan in Cairo, vows
to defy a controversial decision against female students who don the niqab
from staying at the university hostel. (The niqab is a veil covering the
woman's face except for the eyes).
"I won't give up this attire, which makes me feel decent and secure. Why
should they target veiled female students, while tolerating scantily clad
girls on the campus," said Zeinab, aged 20.
A few weeks ago the Provost of Helwan University Abdul Hayy Ebeid infuriated
Islamists in Egypt when he ordered that niqab-wearing students should not be
allowed into the dormitories of the institution unless they agreed to be
checked by security women to verify their identities. Students are
accommodated in these hostels for very low fees.
The decision has drawn protests from students and human rights groups, who
have slammed it as an infringement on personal freedom.
Officials at the university say the decision was taken on security grounds.
"The university will not rescind this decision because it would be blamed if
a man, veiling his face behind the niqab, walked into the female-only
dormitories," Mahmoud Refaat, a director at the University of Helwan, said
in press remarks.
"The niqab has been grossly misused by criminals and even terrorists," said
another university official, who asked not to to be named.
"We should not forget that over a year ago two veiled women were involved in
a foiled attack on a tourist bus in Cairo," he told Gulf News.
Last week, a female Muslim preacher was threatened with death after
declaring the niqab was not an Islamic duty. Suad Saleh, a famous TV
preacher and a former dean of the women's college at the religious
University of Al Azhar, told the private satellite channel TV Dream that it
was wrong to consider the niqab an obligatory item of the Islamic attire.
"There is no unequivocal text in the Holy Quran that women must cover their
faces," she argued.
Islamists have filed a lawsuit against Saleh and Dream TV over the remarks.
"The niqab was common in the Arabian Peninsula centuries before Islam and
was not imposed by this religion," said Amnah Nousir, a professor of Islamic
philosophy.
"The face is one's mirror. So why should the woman hide herself behind this
black veil?" she told Gulf News.
Her argument is supported by Jamal Al Bana, a liberal Muslim thinker, who
said in a recent interview that "the niqab is an insult and he who calls for
it is backward".
MP Ebrahim Zakaria of the Muslim Brotherhood has filed a complaint with the
Prosecutor-General demanding investigations into alleged exclusions of
veiled students from government-run universities.
In recent years the hijab (headscarf) and the niqab have become popular
among Egyptian women.
Original here
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Gulf News Published: 10/22/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)
Cairo: Zeinab, a veiled student at the University of Helwan in Cairo, vows
to defy a controversial decision against female students who don the niqab
from staying at the university hostel. (The niqab is a veil covering the
woman's face except for the eyes).
"I won't give up this attire, which makes me feel decent and secure. Why
should they target veiled female students, while tolerating scantily clad
girls on the campus," said Zeinab, aged 20.
A few weeks ago the Provost of Helwan University Abdul Hayy Ebeid infuriated
Islamists in Egypt when he ordered that niqab-wearing students should not be
allowed into the dormitories of the institution unless they agreed to be
checked by security women to verify their identities. Students are
accommodated in these hostels for very low fees.
The decision has drawn protests from students and human rights groups, who
have slammed it as an infringement on personal freedom.
Officials at the university say the decision was taken on security grounds.
"The university will not rescind this decision because it would be blamed if
a man, veiling his face behind the niqab, walked into the female-only
dormitories," Mahmoud Refaat, a director at the University of Helwan, said
in press remarks.
"The niqab has been grossly misused by criminals and even terrorists," said
another university official, who asked not to to be named.
"We should not forget that over a year ago two veiled women were involved in
a foiled attack on a tourist bus in Cairo," he told Gulf News.
Last week, a female Muslim preacher was threatened with death after
declaring the niqab was not an Islamic duty. Suad Saleh, a famous TV
preacher and a former dean of the women's college at the religious
University of Al Azhar, told the private satellite channel TV Dream that it
was wrong to consider the niqab an obligatory item of the Islamic attire.
"There is no unequivocal text in the Holy Quran that women must cover their
faces," she argued.
Islamists have filed a lawsuit against Saleh and Dream TV over the remarks.
"The niqab was common in the Arabian Peninsula centuries before Islam and
was not imposed by this religion," said Amnah Nousir, a professor of Islamic
philosophy.
"The face is one's mirror. So why should the woman hide herself behind this
black veil?" she told Gulf News.
Her argument is supported by Jamal Al Bana, a liberal Muslim thinker, who
said in a recent interview that "the niqab is an insult and he who calls for
it is backward".
MP Ebrahim Zakaria of the Muslim Brotherhood has filed a complaint with the
Prosecutor-General demanding investigations into alleged exclusions of
veiled students from government-run universities.
In recent years the hijab (headscarf) and the niqab have become popular
among Egyptian women.
posted by JDS at 4:41 AM
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