http://www.gulfnews.com/articles/06/10/22/10076682.html
Published: 10/22/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)
Suad Saleh, a famous TV preacher and a former
dean of the women's college at the religious University of Al Azhar, says it is
wrong to consider the niqab an obligatory item of the Islamic attire.
Veil war breaks out on Egypt university campus
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
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
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