Egypt's Al-Azhar University's Grand Imam Calls for Niqab Ban

Egyptian woman by Alessandro MassimillaniislamOnline reports that the head of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world, Grand Imam Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi has ordered a school girl to remove her niqab during a visit to an Al-Azhar school, saying he would seek an official ban for the face veil in schools, Al-Masri Al-Youm newspaper reported on Monday, October 5.

Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the hijab, which is an obligatory code of dress in Islam, but an increase in women putting on the niqab has apparently alarmed the government.

Sheikh Tantawi’s remarks coincided with those of Higher Education Minister Hani Hilal who has banned the face-veil in student hostels. 

“Face-veiled students are free to do what they want outside the hostels but there is no room for the niqab inside the women-only hostels,” he said earlier this week.

Many students demonstrated against the minister’s statements and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights plans to take him to court.

The majority of Islamic scholars say the face veil is not obligatory in Islam and is merely a custom that dates back to tribal, nomadic societies living in the Arabian desert before Islam began.

Alarabiya reports that women students wearing the niqab have been trying to meet Cairo University President Dr. Hossam Kamel for the past two days in order to protest the ban. After failing to do so, they threatened to sue him and the Minister of Higher Education Dr. Hani Helal, the Egyptian daily independent al-Masry al-Youm reported Tuesday.