Egypt purges niqab from schools and colleges

Egypt has embarked on a campaign to restrict the most conservative forms of Muslim dress after one of Islam's most respected clerics ordered a schoolgirl to remove her niqab, or veil.

Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi was reportedly angered during a tour of a Cairo school when he saw a girl wearing a niqab, the full veil worn by some devout Muslim women which covers the entire body except for the eyes. Sheikh Tantawi, regarded by many as Egypt's Imam and Sunni Islam's foremost spiritual authority, asked the teenage girl to remove her veil saying: "The niqab is a tradition, it has no connection with religion." [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Sheikh Tantawi orders a schoolgirl to remove her niqab The imam of Cairo's prestigious mosque of Al-Azhar has ordered a schoolgirl to remove her niqab, expressing determination to prohibit the wearing of the full veil in schools dependent on Al-Azhar, reported Monday the independent daily Al-Masri Al-Yom. [Ennahar] Read more

A powerful man humiliates a young girl .... It is quite shocking that this man can speak to a religious Muslimah this way in front of her teachers and classmates. I’m sure he does have more knowledge than her; if he did not study books which mention the rulings on female dress, he would not have become a scholar (then again, to do the job he seems to be doing now, you would not need to study for decades to become a proper Islamic scholar).

He surely knows that many major imams said that the niqab was compulsory, and that the rest said that it was an act with great merit and that the ‘standard’ hijab we know of today is only the minimum. He has thus lied publically in order to humiliate a young woman. [Indigo Jo Blogs] Read more

With scholars like these… Dr. Sayyid Tantawi hardly needs an introduction, for he has already established a reputable career, and his resume boasts of such fatwas as the one which encourages Muslim women in France to abandon the headscarf so that they may be in conformity with French law.

It appears, however, that the venerable Shaykh understands that his role cannot stop at merely removing the headscarf from our sisters. In his concern for the welfare of the Ummah, he has now taken an even bolder step. [MuslimMatters.org] Read more

Egyptian authority will issue an edict banning ‘full veils’ Egypt’s highest Muslim authority has said he will issue a religious edict against the growing trend for full women’s veils, known as the niqab. Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, called full-face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith. [Talk Islam] Read more