THE TELEGRAPH: 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."
The imam instructed the girl, a pupil at a secondary school in Cairo's Madinet Nasr suburb, never to wear the niqab again and promised to issue a fatwa, or religious edict, against its use in schools. The ruling will not affect use of the hijab, the Islamic headscarf worn by most Muslim women in Egypt.
Although definitions vary, the niqab is generally distinct from the burka, a garment which covers the entire body and allows only a mesh material in front of the eyes.
Shekih Tantawi's order is likely to resonate throughout the Islamic world even though, ironically, the schoolgirl had only worn the niqab in honour of his visit to the school. Following the imam's lead, …>>> Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent | Monday, October 05, 2009
