WORLD NEWS EGYPT PLANS SCHOOL BAN ON FACE VEIL Story Image
A top cleric in Egypt plans a ban on veils in schools Tuesday October 6,2009 Egypt's top Islamic cleric is planning to bar students wearing the face veil from entering the schools of al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's premier institute of learning. A security official said police have standing verbal orders to prohibit girls covered from head to toe from entering al-Azhar's institutions, including middle and high schools, as well as the dormitories of several universities in Cairo. The moves appear to be part of a government crackdown on increasingly overt manifestations of ultra-conservative Islam in Egypt. While a vast majority of Egyptian women wear the head scarf, only a few wear the niqab, which covers the face and is common in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which practices the more conservative form of Wahhabi Islam. The trend seems to be gaining ground in the Arab world's most populous country. There is no uniform religious opinion across the Muslim world about whether a head scarf - much less a face veil - is required. Most Islamic scholars say the face veil is not required but is merely a custom that dates back to tribal, nomadic societies living in the Arabian desert before Islam began. Sheik of al-Azhar Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi's plans came to light when he told a middle school student in a class he was visiting earlier this week to take off her niqab. Tantawi was inspecting al-Azhar's schools at the start of the academic year to check on measures in place to stem the spread of swine flu, according to details of the visit published Monday by the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. Tantawi angrily told the girl that the niqab "has nothing to do with Islam and is only a custom" and made her take it off. He then announced he would soon issue an order prohibiting girls wearing the niqab from entering al-Azhar schools. Tantawi left Cairo late Sunday on a visit to Tajikistan and was not available for comment. Calls to his deputies went unanswered. ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: proletar-dig...@yahoogroups.com proletar-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: proletar-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
